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Lu H, Chen R, He MW, Liu H, Xue YH. A possible strategy for generating polymer chains with an entanglement-free structure. SOFT MATTER 2022; 18:6888-6898. [PMID: 36043893 DOI: 10.1039/d2sm00897a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
We propose a possible strategy that may experimentally generate long polymeric chains with an entanglement-free structure. The basic idea is designing the conditions to restrict polymer chains from growing along the surface with an obviously concave curvature. This strategy is proved to effectively reduce the chance of forming both inter- and intra-molecular entanglements, which is quite similar to the self-avoiding random walking of chains on a two dimensional plane. We believe that this kind of chain growth strategy may supply a kind of possible explanation on the formation of the entanglement-free structure of chromosomes, which also have tremendously large molecular weight. Besides, this study also guides experimentalists on synthesizing specific entanglement-free functional polymeric or biological materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Lu
- Information Science School, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou 510320, China.
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical Chemistry of Environment Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Ran Chen
- College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130023, China
| | - Min-Wei He
- Information Science School, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou 510320, China.
| | - Hong Liu
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical Chemistry of Environment Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Yao-Hong Xue
- Information Science School, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou 510320, China.
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2
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Cho SH, Lewis EA, Zacharia NS, Vogt BD. Non-destructive determination of functionalized polyelectrolyte placement in layer-by-layer films by IR ellipsometry. SOFT MATTER 2021; 17:10527-10535. [PMID: 34757358 DOI: 10.1039/d1sm01246k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly facilitates controlled coatings on a variety of surfaces with the ability to manipulate the composition through the thickness by selection of the complementary pairs. However, the characterization of these composition profiles tends to be destructive and requires significant compositional differences that can limit their utility. Here, we demonstrate the ability to non-destructively quantify the depth dependence of the allyl content associated with the selective incorporation of poly(sodium acrylate-co-allylacrylamide) (84 : 16 mol : mol) (allyl-PAA) in LbL films based on the assembly of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDAC)/poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and PDAC/allyl-PAA. Although the atomic composition of the film is not dramatically influenced by the change between PAA and allyl-PAA, the absorption in the IR near 1645 cm-1 by the allyl group provides sufficient optical contrast to distinguish the LbL components with spectroscopic ellipsometry. The use of IR spectroscopic ellipsometry can determine the thickness of layers that contain allyl-PAA and also gradients that develop due to re-arrangements during the LbL process. With multiple films fabricated simultaneously, the location of the gradient between the 1st and 2nd series of multilayers (e.g., first PDAC/PAA bilayers and then PDAC/allyl-PAA bilayers) can be readily assessed. The results from a variety of different multilayer architectures indicate that the gradient is located within the thickness expected for the 1st deposited bilayer stack (PDAC/PAA or PDAC/allyl-PAA). These results are indicative of a dynamic dissolution-deposition process (in- and out- diffusion) during the fabrication of these LbL films. These results provide additional evidence into the mechanisms for exponential growth in LbL assemblies. The ability to quantify a gradient with the low contrast system examined indicates that spectroscopic IR ellipsometry should be able to non-destructively determine compositional gradients for most polymer films where such gradients exist.
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Affiliation(s)
- Szu-Hao Cho
- Department of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
| | - Elizabeth A Lewis
- Department of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
| | - Nicole S Zacharia
- Department of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
| | - Bryan D Vogt
- Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
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Wang F, Jiang Z, Lin X, Zhang C, Tanaka K, Zuo B, Zhang W, Wang X. Suppressed Chain Entanglement Induced by Thickness of Ultrathin Polystyrene Films. Macromolecules 2021. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.1c00224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Fengliang Wang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Zhenwei Jiang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Xuanyu Lin
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Cuiyun Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Keiji Tanaka
- Department of Applied Chemistry and Center for Polymer Interface and Molecular Adhesion Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
| | - Biao Zuo
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Wei Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Xinping Wang
- Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
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4
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David A, Pasquini M, Tartaglino U, Raos G. A Coarse-Grained Force Field for Silica-Polybutadiene Interfaces and Nanocomposites. Polymers (Basel) 2020; 12:polym12071484. [PMID: 32630822 PMCID: PMC7407278 DOI: 10.3390/polym12071484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2020] [Revised: 06/27/2020] [Accepted: 06/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
We present a coarse-grained force field for modelling silica–polybutadiene interfaces and nanocomposites. The polymer, poly(cis-1,4-butadiene), is treated with a previously published united-atom model. Silica is treated as a rigid body, using one Si-centered superatom for each SiO2 unit. The parameters for the cross-interaction between silica and the polymer are derived by Boltzmann inversion of the density oscillations at model interfaces, obtained from atomistic simulations of silica surfaces containing both Q4 (hydrophobic) and Q3 (silanol-containing, hydrophilic) silicon atoms. The performance of the model is tested in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We expect the present model to be useful for future large-scale simulations of rubber–silica nanocomposites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessio David
- Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, “G. Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, 20131 Milan, Italy; (A.D.); (M.P.)
| | - Marta Pasquini
- Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, “G. Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, 20131 Milan, Italy; (A.D.); (M.P.)
| | | | - Guido Raos
- Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, “G. Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, 20131 Milan, Italy; (A.D.); (M.P.)
- Correspondence:
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5
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Li S, Ding M, Shi T. Spatial distribution of entanglements and dynamics in polymer films confined by smooth walls. POLYMER 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2019.04.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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6
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Li S, Chen Q, Ding M, Shi T. Effect of Bidispersity on Dynamics of Confined Polymer Films. Polymers (Basel) 2018; 10:E1327. [PMID: 30961252 PMCID: PMC6402039 DOI: 10.3390/polym10121327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2018] [Revised: 11/26/2018] [Accepted: 11/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Using Monte Carlo simulations, we studied the effect of bidispersity on the dynamics of polymer films capped between two neutral walls, where we chose three representative compositions for bidispersed polymer films. Our results demonstrate that the characteristic entanglement length is an important parameter to clarify the effect of the bidispersity on the dynamics of polymer films. For the short chains, shorter than the characteristic entanglement length, the average number of near-neighboring particles increases with the decrease of the film thickness and limits the diffusivity of the short chains, which is independent of the film compositions. However, the dynamics of the long chains, of which is above the characteristic entanglement length, is determined by the film's composition. In our previous paper, we inferred from the structures and entanglements of the bidisperse system with short and long chains that the constraint release contributes significantly to the relaxation mechanism of long chains. By calculating the self-diffusion coefficient of long chains, we confirmed this prediction that, with a lower weight fraction of long chains, the self-diffusion coefficient of long chains decreases slowly with the decrease of the film thickness, which is similar to that of short chains. With a higher weight fraction of long chains, the competition between the disentanglement and the increased in the local degree of confinement which resulted in the self-diffusion coefficient of long chains varying non-monotonically with the film thickness. Furthermore, for the bidisperse system with long and long chains, the diffusivity of long chains was not affected by the constraint release, which varied nonmonotonically with the decrease of the film thickness due to the competition between the disentanglement and the enhanced confinement. Herein, compared with the previous work, we completely clarified the relationship between the structures and dynamics for three representative compositions of bidisperse polymer films, which contains all possible cases for bidisperse systems. Our work not only establishes a unified understanding of the dependency of dynamics on the bidispersity of polymer films, but also helps to understand the case of polydispersity, which can provide computational supports for various applications for polymer films.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sijia Li
- Department of Fire Command, China People's Police University, Langfang 065000, China.
| | - Qiaoyue Chen
- Xinjiang Laboratory of Phase Transitions and Microstructures in Condensed Matter Physics, College of Physical Science and Technology, Yili Normal University, Yining 835000, China.
| | - Mingming Ding
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, Changchun 130022, China.
| | - Tongfei Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, Changchun 130022, China.
- School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
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7
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Ethier JG, Hall LM. Structure and Entanglement Network of Model Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticle Monolayers. Macromolecules 2018. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.8b01373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey G. Ethier
- William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Lisa M. Hall
- William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
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Li S, Ding M, Shi T. Effect of Bidispersity on Structure and Entanglement of Confined Polymer Films. J Phys Chem B 2017; 121:7502-7507. [PMID: 28703586 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.7b04468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Using Monte Carlo simulations combined with a geometric primitive path analysis method (Z1 algorithm), we investigate the effect of bidispersity on the structure and entanglement of polymer films which consist of short (the molecular length is below the characteristic entanglement molecular length) and long (the molecular length is above the characteristic entanglement molecular length) chains between two neutral walls. Our results demonstrate the length-based migrations of chains in bidisperse films (the longer chains reside away from the walls and the shorter chains are close to the walls), which becomes more obvious with the decrease in the weight fraction of long chains. With decreasing the weight fraction of long chains, the number of short-long entanglements exhibits a dramatic increase, whereas the number of long-long entanglements exhibits a slight decrease, which indicates that short chains can significantly affect the local situations of entanglements of bidisperse polymer films. On the basis of the constraint release mechanism, our simulations imply that for the lower weight fraction of long chains, the local degree of confinement instead of the long-long entanglements has a marked effect on the relaxation of long chains, due to the fast relaxation of short chains dilating the tube diameter of long chains. However, for the higher weight fraction of long chains, after the relaxation of short chains, the long-long entanglements are in sufficient quantities to restrict long chains within a tube, which implies that the relaxation of long chains is hardly affected by the number of short-long entanglements. Our work can be helpful for understanding the microscopic structure and entanglement of bidisperse polymer films, which can provide computational support for their various technological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sijia Li
- Department of Fire Command, Chinese People's Armed Police Force Academy , Langfang 065000, P. R. China
| | - Mingming Ding
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science , Changchun 130022, P. R. China
| | - Tongfei Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science , Changchun 130022, P. R. China
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Choi KI, Kim TH, Yuan G, Satija SK, Koo J. Dynamics of Entangled Polymers Confined between Graphene Oxide Sheets as Studied by Neutron Reflectivity. ACS Macro Lett 2017. [DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b00416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ki-In Choi
- Neutron
Science Center, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon, 34057, Korea
- Department
of Organic Materials Engineering, Chungnam Nation University, Daejeon, 34134, Korea
| | - Tae-Ho Kim
- Neutron
Science Center, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon, 34057, Korea
| | - Guangcui Yuan
- Center
for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, United States
| | - Sushil K. Satija
- Center
for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, United States
| | - Jaseung Koo
- Neutron
Science Center, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon, 34057, Korea
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