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Polymers
Special Issues
Complex Polymer in Complex Environment
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Complex Polymer in Complex Environment

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Physics and Theory".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2020) | Viewed by 2465

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Angel J. Moreno

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Física de Materiales, CSIC-UPV/EHU, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Interests: theory and simulation; polymer dynamics and rheology; polymeric nanoparticles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

High-precision synthesis of architecturally complex polymers (dendrimers, stars, rings, bottlebrush, etc) produces systems with multiple applications, both as single objects (nanocarriers, rheological agents, drug delivery systems, etc.) or as building blocks for the formation of complex soft matter phases. Their complex molecular topology challenges the conventional scenarios of reference models such as hard sphere fluids or linear polymer chains. Two archetypical examples of the former are: (i) the static and dynamic anomalies in solutions of soft colloids; (ii) the dramatic effect of branching or absence of chain ends on the rheological behavior.

This Special Issue will present theoretical and experimental contributions to the fundamentals of structure and dynamics of polymers with complex architectures in complex environments. These include behavior in crowded solutions, confinement, or reduced dimensionality, under shear flow or external fields, among others. The investigated properties may cover topics such as scaling behavior, crystallization, phase separation, self-assembly, glass formation, rheological properties, etc.

Though most of the contributions are expected to be original work, high-quality reviews of the state of the art are also welcome.

Dr. Angel J. Moreno
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Polymer dendrimers
  • Bottlebrush/star polymers
  • Self-assembly
  • Polymer crystallization
  • Polymer phase separation
  • Polymer rheological properties

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 3950 KiB  
Article
Conformation of Flexible and Semiflexible Chains Confined in Nanoposts Array of Various Geometries
by Zuzana Benková, Lucia Rišpanová and Peter Cifra
Polymers 2020, 12(5), 1064; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12051064 - 06 May 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2206
Abstract
The conformation and distribution of a flexible and semiflexible chain confined in an array of nanoposts arranged in parallel way in a square-lattice projection of their cross-section was investigated using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. The geometry of the nanopost array was varied at [...] Read more.
The conformation and distribution of a flexible and semiflexible chain confined in an array of nanoposts arranged in parallel way in a square-lattice projection of their cross-section was investigated using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. The geometry of the nanopost array was varied at the constant post diameter dp and the ensuing modifications of the chain conformation were compared with the structural behavior of the chain in the series of nanopost arrays with the constant post separation Sp as well as with the constant distance between two adjacent post walls (passage width) wp. The free energy arguments based on an approximation of the array of nanopost to a composite of quasi-channels of diameter dc and quasi-slits of height wp provide semiqualitative explanations for the observed structural behavior of both chains. At constant post separation and passage width, the occupation number displays a monotonic decrease with the increasing geometry ratio dc/wp or volume fraction of posts, while a maximum is observed at constant post diameter. The latter finding is attributed to a relaxed conformation of the chains at small dc/wp ratio, which results from a combination of wide interstitial volumes and wide passage apertures. This maximum is approximately positioned at the same dc/wp value for both flexible and semiflexible chains. The chain expansion from a single interstitial volume into more interstitial volumes also starts at the same value of dc/wp ratio for both chains. The dependence of the axial chain extension on the dc/wp ratio turns out to be controlled by the diameter of the interstitial space and by the number of monomers in the individual interstitial volumes. If these two factors act in the same way on the axial extension of chain fragments in interstitial volumes the monotonic increase of the axial chain extension with the dc/wp in the nanopost arrays is observed. At constant wp, however, these two factors act in opposite way and the axial chain extension plotted against the dc/wp ratio exhibits a maximum. In the case of constant post diameter, the characteristic hump in the single chain structure factor whose position correlates with the post separation is found only in the structure factor of the flexible chain confined in the nanopost array of certain value of Sp. The structure factor of the flexible chain contains more information on the monomer organization and mutual correlations than the structure factor of the semiflexible chain. The stiffer chain confined in the nanopost array is composed of low number of statistical segments important for the presence of respective hierarchical regimes in the structure factor. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Complex Polymer in Complex Environment)
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