27 papers · ranked by Valyu relevance
Søren Mejlsøe, Ashok Kakkar, Carlos Alemán
Architectural complexity has played a key role in enhancing the efficacy of nanocarriers for a variety of applications, including those in the biomedical field. With the continued evolution in designing macromolecules-based nanoparticles for drug delivery, the combination approach of using important features of linear…
Hector Eduardo Roman
This Editorial provides a concise review of the contributions featured in this Special Issue (SI), which is dedicated to the theoretical aspects of polymers in physics, chemistry, and biology, covering both their structural and dynamical properties. The SI was originally conceived to highlight algorithms for generating…
Mike Edwards
Statistical mechanics is employed to tackle the problem of polymer brush bilayers under stationary shear motion. The article addresses, solely, the linear response regime in which the polymer brush bilayers behave very much similar to the Newtonian fluids. My approach to this long-standing problem split drastically…
Tatjana Škrbić, Achille Giacometti, Trinh X. Hoang, Amos Maritan + 1 more
Linear chain molecules play a central role in polymer physics with innumerable industrial applications. They are also ubiquitous constituents of living cells. Here we highlight the similarities and differences between two distinct ways of viewing a linear chain. We do this, on the one hand, through the lens of…
Andrzej Grzyb, K. Haydukivska, J. S. Kłos, Aykut Erbaş + 1 more
'Jarosław Paturej'] Cyclic polymers display unique physical behaviors in comparison to their linear counterparts. Theoretical, computational and experimental studies have revealed that some of their distinctive properties are also observed in charged variants of cyclic polymers, known as cyclic polyelectrolytes (PEs)…
Authors not listed
The demand for high-resolution imaging of nanomaterials continues to grow across disciplines. However, conventional support films for transmission and scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM/STEM) are often limited by low beam resistance, suboptimal resolution, toxicity concerns, and high production costs. This…
Naixin Zhao, Sung Jae Jeon, Yuning Li
Cross-conjugated polymer semiconductors represent an unconventional yet promising class of materials with distinct structural and electronic characteristics compared to their linear conjugated counterparts. These systems introduce branched π-electron delocalization, enabling unique optical, electronic, and redox…
Elizabeth A. Conley, Creighton M. Lisowski, Katherine G. Schaefer, Harrison C. Davison + 3 more
The fundamental molecules of life are polymers. Prominent examples include nucleic acids and proteins, both of which exhibit a large array of mechanical properties and three-dimensional shapes. The bending rigidity of individual polymers is quantified by the persistence length. The shape of a polymer, dictated by the…
Ali Seyedi, Alex Albaugh
Mechanically interlocked polymers (MIPs) are a class of polymer structures in which the components are connected by mechanical bonds instead of covalent bonds. We measure the single-molecule rheological properties of polyrotaxanes, daisy chains, and polycatenanes under steady shear and steady uniaxial extension using…
Christopher M. Plummer, Le Li, Yongming Chen
Polymerization for the Goal of Chemically Recyclable Polymers Authors: ['Christopher M. Plummer' 'Le Li' 'Yongming Chen'] A crucial modern dilemma relates to the ecological crisis created by excess plastic waste production. An emerging technology for reducing plastic waste is the production of “chemically recyclable”…
Kayla Williams-Pavlantos, McKenna J. Redding, Oluwapelumi O. Kareem, Mark A. Arnould + 2 more
Reflects Architectural Differences in Analogous, Bis-MPA-Based Linear Polymers, Hyperbranched Polymers, and Dendrimers Authors: ['Kayla Williams-Pavlantos' 'McKenna J. Redding' 'Oluwapelumi O. Kareem' 'Mark A. Arnould' 'Scott M. Grayson' 'Chrys Wesdemiotis'] The growing use of branched polymers in various industrial…
Bang An, Litao Zhou, Shuai Liu, Feichen Cui + 2 more
α-Olefins are valued and abundant building blocks from fossil resources. They are widely used to provide small-molecule or polymeric products. Poly-α-olefins are predominately synthesized via coordination polymerization. Despite numerous advantages of radical polymerization, it has been well-documented as textbook…
Michael Lang, Kiran Suresh Kumar
> In a preceding work [M. Lang, K. Kumar, A simple and general approach for reversible condensation polymerization with cyclization, Macromolecules 54 (2021), in press. ma-2021-00718y], we have introduced a simple recursive scheme that allows to treat stepwise linear reversible polymerizations of any kind with…
Hector Eduardo Roman, Joan Josep Cerdà
We start presenting an overview on recent applications of linear polymers and networks in condensed matter physics, chemistry and biology by briefly discussing selected papers (published within 2022-2024) in some detail. They are organized into three main subsections: polymers in physics (further subdivided into…
Isaac Pincus, Vincenzo Calabrese, Simon J. Haward, Gareth H. McKinley
Liquid bridges of polymer solutions that are self-thinning due to the action of capillarity undergo a transition from Newtonian-like linear thinning to exponential elastocapillary (EC) thinning when the polymer chains are stretched by the elongational flow and the resulting elastic contribution to the stress exceeds…
Mike Edwards
By means of the density functional theory framework I tackle the long-standing problem of a polymer star interpenetrating with a polymer brush at thermal equilibrium. Remarkably, the star is repelled to the outside of the brush once it sucks into the brush. It turns out that there could be a highly fluctuating region…
Mike J. Edwards
The density functional theory framework and the scaling theory are employed to approach the problem of the Polyelectrolyte brush bilayer under shear. It turns out that, the system at shear rates larger than a critical shear rate undergo a global restructuring during which chains stretch in the shear direction. In the…
Ali Seyedi, Charles W. Manke, Alex Albaugh
Polycatenanes are mechanically interlocked polymers composed of ring molecules linked through mechanical bonds. Here, we investigate the single-molecule dynamics of linear polycatenanes under strong steady shear flow using coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations with hydrodynamic interactions. We identify a stable…
Yuecheng Zhou, Charles D. Young, Megan Lee, Sourya Banik + 5 more
'Dejie Kong' 'Gregory B. McKenna' 'Rae M. Robertson‐Anderson' 'Charles E. Sing' 'Charles M. Schroeder'] Ring polymers exhibit unique flow properties due to their closed chain topology. Despite recent progress, we have not yet achieved a full understanding of the nonequilibrium flow behavior of rings in nondilute…
Sarit Dutta, Matthew A. Wade, Dylan J. Walsh, Damien Guironnet + 2 more
Bottlebrush polymers are a class of macromolecules that has recently found use in a wide variety of materials, ranging from lubricating brushes and nanostructured coatings to elastomeric gels that exhibit structural color. These polymers are characterized by dense branches extending from a central backbone, and thus…
Shehu Habibu, Norazilawati Muhamad Sarih, Azizah Mainal
This work aimed at developing a synthetic route towards highly branched poly(isoprene) from commercially available raw materials, in good yield and devoid of microgelation, i.e., to prepare a completely soluble polymer via the versatile technique anionic polymerisation. The polymerisations were conducted under high…
D. Michieletto, P. Neill, S. Weir, D. Evans + 3 more
Understanding and controlling the rheology of polymeric complex fluids that are pushed out-of-equilibrium is a fundamental problem in both industry and biology. For example, to package, repair, and replicate DNA, cells use enzymes to constantly manipulate DNA topology, length, and structure. Inspired by this, here we…
Authors not listed
Polycatenanes, a novel class of polymers consisting of interlocked macrocyclic monomers, have attracted significant attention. However, the formation mechanism of polycatenanes through direct catenation remains poorly understood. Herein we explore the structural diversity and unique chain termination mechanism inherent…
Authors not listed
The weak welding strength between filament layers in fused deposition modeling (FDM) products results in anisotropic mechanical properties that are also sensitive to print patterns. Furthermore, poor transverse directional alignment coupled with slow printing rates limit their applicability for industrial production.…
Authors not listed
Antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat to human health and agriculture. Sulfur-containing compounds and elemental sulfur have a long history of use as antimicrobials, but challenges related to solubility and formulation have limited their broad application. Recent advances in sulfur polymer chemistry have enabled…
Zeyu Liu, Jiaojiao Wang, Qing Zhou, Tian Lu + 4 more
Based on the computational approach that can accurately describe their geometric structures and electronic spectra, we have theoretically studied the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of H-capped carbon chains, H-(C≡C)n-H, for the first time. Special attention was paid to the size dependence of the molecular…
Mary Dana Czarinah L. Cheng-Tan, Zachary A. Wood, Megan E. Fieser
Polymers (plastics) have become essential for daily life due to their versatility, providing low-cost solutions for transportation, food packaging, healthcare, and more. However, the growing accumulation of plastic waste highlights the urgent need for more sustainable approaches to polymer production. While discrete…