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Shen YF, Hu HX, Luo MB. Adsorption of active polymers on attractive nanoparticles. SOFT MATTER 2024; 20:621-628. [PMID: 38131641 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm01380d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2023]
Abstract
The adsorption of active polymers on an attractive nanoparticle (NP) is studied using Langevin dynamics simulations. The active polymers consist of an active Brownian particle (ABP) at the head and a subsequent passive polymer chain. The ABP experiences an active force of magnitude Fa. The interactions between the active polymer and NP are modeled as Lennard-Jones potential with a strength εpn. We find the critical adsorption point εpn* increases with increasing the active force Fa. The increment of εpn*, denoted as Δεpn*, due to Fa can be expressed approximately as Δεpn* ∝ Fa2.5 for the restricted rotating active polymer (RRAP) where the rotation of the head ABP is restricted and Δεpn* ∝ Fa1.7 for the freely rotating active polymer (FRAP) where the ABP rotates freely. Meanwhile, the conformation of the adsorbed polymer, such as adsorbed trains on NP and the tail near the ABP, are also dependent on Fa. When the tail near the ABP is short, the adsorption is significantly affected by the active force. However, when the tail is long, the whole polymer can be viewed as a long tail stretched by the active force and unperturbed adsorption monomers. Simulation results show that the active force has a direct and significant effect on εpn* and the structure of the adsorbed active polymers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi-Fan Shen
- School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
| | - Han-Xian Hu
- School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
| | - Meng-Bo Luo
- School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
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Hua DY, Luo MB. Simulation study on the effect of polydisperse nanoparticles on polymer diffusion in crowded environments. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2023; 25:28252-28262. [PMID: 37830249 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp03641c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2023]
Abstract
The diffusion of polymer chains in a crowded environment with large and small immobile, attractive nanoparticles (NPs) is studied using Langevin dynamics simulations. For orderly distributed NPs on the simple cubic lattice, our results show that the diffusion of polymer chains is dependent on the NP-NP distance or lattice distance d. At low d where NPs are placed closely, subdiffusion occurs at a sufficiently high polydispersity of NPs, PD. Both the apparent diffusion coefficient and subdiffusion exponent of polymer chains decrease with increasing PD, attributed to the adsorption of polymers on NP clusters formed by larger NPs. At large d, normal diffusion is always observed, and the diffusion coefficient increases with increasing PD. The reason is that, at high PD, the difference between single large NP adsorption and double large NP adsorption is reduced, which increases the exchange of a polymer between the two adsorption states. Finally, the impact of size polydispersity of NPs on the diffusion of polymer chains in a crowded environment with randomly distributed NPs is also investigated. The results show that the position disorder of NPs enhances the subdiffusion of the system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dao-Yang Hua
- School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
| | - Meng-Bo Luo
- School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
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Hua DY, Khan RAA, Luo MB. Langevin Dynamics Simulation on the Diffusivity of Polymers in Crowded Environments with Immobile Nanoparticles. Macromolecules 2022. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.2c01786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Dao-Yang Hua
- Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
| | | | - Meng-Bo Luo
- Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
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Lu RX, Zhou Y, Yang QH, Huang JH. Langevin dynamics simulation on optimal conditions for large and stable loops of adsorbed homopolymers on substrates. SOFT MATTER 2022; 18:5989-5998. [PMID: 35920368 DOI: 10.1039/d2sm00553k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Adsorption of polymer chains on a solid surface is a universal interfacial behavior. Loops in the adsorbed chains are considered to exert a significant effect on the overall properties of a substrate-supported polymer film via entanglement with non-adsorbed chains in the film. In this work, the size and stability of loops formed by adsorbed homopolymer chains on an attractive substrate were studied by Langevin dynamics simulations. The size of loops decreases while the stability increases with increasing attraction strength of the substrate. In contrast, with an increase in the polymer concentration, the size of loops increases but the stability decreases. However, both the size and stability of loops increase with increasing chain length. Simulation results show that the optimal conditions for forming large and stable loops are long homopolymer chains, substrates with moderate attraction strength, and moderate polymer concentration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rong-Xing Lu
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Yun Zhou
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Qing-Hui Yang
- Department of Physics, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Jian-Hua Huang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
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5
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Lu RX, Huang JH, Luo MB. A simulation study on the subdiffusion of polymer chains in crowded environments containing nanoparticles. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:3078-3085. [PMID: 35040462 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp03926a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Polymer chains in crowded environments often show subdiffusive behavior. We adopt molecular dynamics simulations to study the conditions for the subdiffusion of polymer chains in crowded environments containing randomly distributed, immobile, attractive nanoparticles (NPs). The attraction is strong enough to adsorb polymer chains on NPs. The results show that subdiffusion occurs at a low concentration of polymer chains (cp). A transition from subdiffusion to normal diffusion is observed when cp exceeds the transition concentration , which increases with increasing concentration of NPs while decreases with increasing size of NPs. The high concentration and small size of NPs exert a big effect on the subdiffusion of polymer chains. The subdiffusive behavior of polymer chains can be attributed to the strong adsorption of polymer chains on the attractive NPs. For the subdiffusion case, polymer chains are adsorbed strongly on multiple NPs, and they diffuse via the NP-exchange diffusion mechanism. However for the normal diffusion case, polymer chains are either free or weakly adsorbed on one or a few NPs, and they diffuse mainly via the adsorption-and-desorption diffusion mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rong-Xing Lu
- Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Surface & Interface Science of Polymer Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Jian-Hua Huang
- Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Surface & Interface Science of Polymer Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Meng-Bo Luo
- Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
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Li CY, Huang JH, Li H, Luo MB. Study on the interfacial properties of polymers around a nanoparticle. RSC Adv 2020; 10:28075-28082. [PMID: 35519124 PMCID: PMC9055661 DOI: 10.1039/d0ra05392a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The interfacial properties of polymer chains on spherical nanoparticles are investigated using off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chao-Yang Li
- Department of Physics
- Hangzhou Normal University
- Hangzhou 311121
- China
| | - Jian-Hua Huang
- Department of Chemistry
- Zhejiang Sci-Tech University
- Hangzhou 310018
- China
| | - Hong Li
- Department of Physics
- Wenzhou University
- Wenzhou 325035
- China
| | - Meng-Bo Luo
- Department of Physics
- Zhejiang University
- Hangzhou 310027
- China
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Huang JH, Sun DD, Lu RX, Zhang H, Khan RAA. Simulation on diffusivity and statistical size of polymer chains in polymer nanocomposites. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2020; 22:21919-21927. [PMID: 32970078 DOI: 10.1039/d0cp04390g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
The dynamical and conformational properties of polymer chains are affected significantly by strongly attractive nanoparticles. The adsorption of polymer chains on nanoparticles not only reduces the dynamics but also changes the conformation of polymer chains. For orderly distributed nanoparticles of size roughly the same as the radius of gyration of polymer chains, the variation of the diffusivity is highly related to that of the statistical size and can be explained mainly from the adsorption of polymers. In particular, both the polymer's size and diffusivity reach the minimum when the number of polymer chains matches the number of nanoparticles where polymer chains are mostly adsorbed on separate nanoparticles. The behavior of diffusivity can be explained from the cooperation of polymer adsorption and nanoparticle-exchange motion. Adsorption of the polymer chain slows down the diffusion, whereas the nanoparticle-exchange motion accelerates the diffusion of polymer chains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian-Hua Huang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Dan-Dan Sun
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Rong-Xing Lu
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Huan Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
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Peng Y, Zhang H, Huang XW, Huang JH, Luo MB. Monte Carlo simulation on the dynamics of a semi-flexible polymer in the presence of nanoparticles. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2018; 20:26333-26343. [PMID: 30303200 DOI: 10.1039/c8cp05136d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The dynamics of a semi-flexible polymer chain in the presence of periodically distributed nanoparticles is simulated by using off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations. For repulsive or weak attractive nanoparticles, the dynamics are slowed down monotonically by increasing the chain stiffness kθ or decreasing the inter-particle distance d. For strong attractive nanoparticles, however, the dynamics show nonmonotonic behaviors with kθ and d. An interesting result is that a stiff polymer may move faster than a flexible one. The underlying mechanism is that the nanoparticle's attraction is weakened by the chain stiffness. The nonmonotonic behavior of the polymer's dynamics with kθ is explained by the competition between the weakening effect of the chain stiffness on the nanoparticle's attraction and the intrinsic effect of chain stiffness which reduces the dynamics of the polymer. In addition, the nonmonotonic behavior of the polymer's dynamics with d is explained by the competition between the nanoparticle-exchange motion of the polymer dominated at small d and the desorption-and-adsorption motion at large d. The excluded volume effect of the nanoparticles plays a more important role for stiffer polymers as the attraction of the nanoparticles is weakened by the chain stiffness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Peng
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Huan Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Xiao-Wei Huang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Jian-Hua Huang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Meng-Bo Luo
- Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
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Zhang Y, Fry CG, Pedersen JA, Hamers RJ. Dynamics and Morphology of Nanoparticle-Linked Polymers Elucidated by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Anal Chem 2017; 89:12399-12407. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.7b03489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Yongqian Zhang
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Charles G. Fry
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Joel A. Pedersen
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
- Environmental
Chemistry and Technology Program, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1525 Observatory Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Robert J. Hamers
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
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10
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Simulation study on the conformational properties of an adsorbed polymer on a nanoparticle. Colloid Polym Sci 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s00396-017-4201-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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