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Staňo R, Likos CN, Egorov SA. Mixing Linear Polymers with Rings and Catenanes: Bulk and Interfacial Behavior. Macromolecules 2023; 56:8168-8182. [PMID: 37900098 PMCID: PMC10601540 DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.3c01267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2023] [Revised: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023]
Abstract
We derive and parameterize effective interaction potentials between a multitude of different types of ring polymers and linear chains, varying the bending rigidity and solvent quality for the former species. We further develop and apply a density functional treatment for mixtures of both disconnected (chain-ring) and connected (chain-polycatenane) mixtures of the same, drawing coexistence binodals and exploring the ensuing response functions as well as the interface and wetting behavior of the mixtures. We show that worsening of the solvent quality for the rings brings about a stronger propensity for macroscopic phase separation in the linear-polycatenane mixtures, which is predominantly of the demixing type between phases of similar overall particle density. We formulate a simple criterion based on the effective interactions, allowing us to determine whether any specific linear-ring mixture will undergo a demixing phase separation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roman Staňo
- Faculty
of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria
- Vienna
Doctoral School in Physics, University of
Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Christos N. Likos
- Faculty
of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Sergei A. Egorov
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901, United States
- Erwin
Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematics and Physics, Boltzmanngasse 9, 1090 Vienna, Austria
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2
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Bakhshandeh A, Segala M, Escobar Colla T. Equilibrium Conformations and Surface Charge Regulation of Spherical Polymer Brushes in Stretched Regimes. Macromolecules 2021. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.1c02077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Amin Bakhshandeh
- Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- Departamento de Físico-Química, Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
| | - Maximiliano Segala
- Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, 35400-000 Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Departamento de Físico-Química, Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
| | - Thiago Escobar Colla
- Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, 35400-000 Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil
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3
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Corsi P, González García Á, Roma E, Gasperi T, Capone B. Coarse graining and adsorption in bottlebrush-colloid mixtures. SOFT MATTER 2021; 17:3681-3687. [PMID: 33683278 DOI: 10.1039/d1sm00141h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
We study the adsorption properties in bottlebrush/colloid binary mixtures by combining scaling theories, theoretical predictions, self-consistent field computations (SCFC), and molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, we focus on adsorption in the case in which an attraction is set between the two species, by analysing the solution properties for a range of interactions and the size ratio between colloids and bottlebrushes, in the case in which colloids are smaller than the macromolecules. We show that the onset of adsorption is dominated by the local properties of the adsorbing guest particle. This allows us to use the local similarity between a cylindrical bottlebrush and a spherical star polymer to predict the region of the parameter space in which the adsorption takes place. By employing simple scaling arguments, we thus extend the analytical results on the adsorption obtained for binary mixtures of star polymers/colloid nanoparticles. We then validate our predictions with molecular dynamics simulations. Moreover, by means of SCFC, we assess the adsorption-to-depletion transition of nanoparticles in polymeric bottlebrushes. Our results pave the road towards a smart rational design and coarse-graining of adsorbing/releasing systems, where an elongated shape might play an important role.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pietro Corsi
- Dipartimento di Scienze, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146, Roma, Italy.
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4
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Hinkle KR. Using coarse-grained models to examine structure-property relationships of diblock-arm star polymers. Eur Polym J 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2020.110149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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5
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Nogueira TPO, Frota HO, Piazza F, Bordin JR. Tracer diffusion in crowded solutions of sticky polymers. Phys Rev E 2020; 102:032618. [PMID: 33075900 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.102.032618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Macromolecular diffusion in strongly confined geometries and crowded environments is still to a large extent an open subject in soft matter physics and biology. In this paper, we employ large-scale Langevin dynamics simulations to investigate how the diffusion of a tracer is influenced by the combined action of excluded-volume and weak attractive crowder-tracer interactions. We consider two species of tracers, standard hard-core particles described by the Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) repulsive potential and core-softened (CS) particles, which model, e.g., globular proteins, charged colloids, and nanoparticles covered by polymeric brushes. These systems are characterized by the presence of two length scales in the interaction and can show waterlike anomalies in their diffusion, stemming from the inherent competition between different length scales. Here we report a comprehensive study of both diffusion and structure of these two tracer species in an environment crowded by quenched configurations of polymers at increasing density. We analyze in detail how the tracer-polymer affinity and the system density affect transport as compared to the emergence of specific static spatial correlations. In particular, we find that, while hardly any differences emerge in the diffusion properties of WCA and CS particles, the propensity to develop structural order for large crowding is strongly frustrated for CS particles. Surprisingly, for large enough affinity for the crowding matrix, the diffusion coefficient of WCA tracers display a nonmonotonic trend as their density is increased when compared to the zero affinity scenario. This waterlike anomaly turns out to be even larger than what observed for CS particle and appears to be rooted in a similar competition between excluded-volume and affinity effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- T P O Nogueira
- Departamento de Física, Instituto de Física e Matemática, Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Caixa Postal 354, 96001-970, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - H O Frota
- Department of Physics, Federal University of Amazonas, 69077-000 Manaus, AM, Brazil
| | - Francesco Piazza
- Université d'Orléans, Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire (CBM), CNRS UPR4301, Rue C. Sadron, 45071 Orléans, France
| | - José Rafael Bordin
- Departamento de Física, Instituto de Física e Matemática, Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Caixa Postal 354, 96001-970, Pelotas, Brazil
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6
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Karatrantos A, Composto RJ, Winey KI, Kröger M, Clarke N. Modeling of Entangled Polymer Diffusion in Melts and Nanocomposites: A Review. Polymers (Basel) 2019; 11:E876. [PMID: 31091725 PMCID: PMC6571671 DOI: 10.3390/polym11050876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2019] [Revised: 05/06/2019] [Accepted: 05/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
This review concerns modeling studies of the fundamental problem of entangled (reptational) homopolymer diffusion in melts and nanocomposite materials in comparison to experiments. In polymer melts, the developed united atom and multibead spring models predict an exponent of the molecular weight dependence to the polymer diffusion very similar to experiments and the tube reptation model. There are rather unexplored parameters that can influence polymer diffusion such as polymer semiflexibility or polydispersity, leading to a different exponent. Models with soft potentials or slip-springs can estimate accurately the tube model predictions in polymer melts enabling us to reach larger length scales and simulate well entangled polymers. However, in polymer nanocomposites, reptational polymer diffusion is more complicated due to nanoparticle fillers size, loading, geometry and polymer-nanoparticle interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Argyrios Karatrantos
- Materials Research and Technology, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, 5, Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
| | - Russell J Composto
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
| | - Karen I Winey
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
| | - Martin Kröger
- Polymer Physics, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Leopold-Ruzicka-Weg 4, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Nigel Clarke
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK.
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Wengenmayr M, Dockhorn R, Sommer JU. Dendrimers in Solution of Linear Polymers: Crowding Effects. Macromolecules 2019. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b00010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Wengenmayr
- Leibniz Institute
of Polymer Research Dresden, Hohe Strasse 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany
| | - Ron Dockhorn
- Leibniz Institute
of Polymer Research Dresden, Hohe Strasse 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany
| | - Jens-Uwe Sommer
- Leibniz Institute
of Polymer Research Dresden, Hohe Strasse 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Technische Universität Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany
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8
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Affiliation(s)
- Iurii Chubak
- Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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9
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Menichetti R, Pelissetto A, Randisi F. Thermodynamics of star polymer solutions: A coarse-grained study. J Chem Phys 2018; 146:244908. [PMID: 28668065 DOI: 10.1063/1.4989476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
We consider a coarse-grained (CG) model with pairwise interactions, suitable to describe low-density solutions of star-branched polymers of functionality f. Each macromolecule is represented by a CG molecule with (f + 1) interaction sites, which captures the star topology. Potentials are obtained by requiring the CG model to reproduce a set of distribution functions computed in the microscopic model in the zero-density limit. Explicit results are given for f = 6, 12, and 40. We use the CG model to compute the osmotic equation of state of the solution for concentrations c such that Φp=c∕c*≲1, where c* is the overlap concentration. We also investigate in detail the phase diagram for f = 40, identifying the boundaries of the solid intermediate phase. Finally, we investigate how the polymer size changes with c. For Φp≲0.3, polymers become harder as f increases at fixed reduced concentration c∕c*. On the other hand, for Φp≳0.3, polymers show the opposite behavior: At fixed Φp, the larger the value of f, the larger their size reduction is.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Menichetti
- Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung, Ackermannweg 10, D-55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Andrea Pelissetto
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma and INFN, Sezione di Roma I, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Roma, Italy
| | - Ferdinando Randisi
- Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom
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10
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Blanco PM, Garcés JL, Madurga S, Mas F. Macromolecular diffusion in crowded media beyond the hard-sphere model. SOFT MATTER 2018; 14:3105-3114. [PMID: 29620120 DOI: 10.1039/c8sm00201k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The effect of macromolecular crowding on diffusion beyond the hard-core sphere model is studied. A new coarse-grained model is presented, the Chain Entanglement Softened Potential (CESP) model, which takes into account the macromolecular flexibility and chain entanglement. The CESP model uses a shoulder-shaped interaction potential that is implemented in the Brownian Dynamics (BD) computations. The interaction potential contains only one parameter associated with the chain entanglement energetic cost (Ur). The hydrodynamic interactions are included in the BD computations via Tokuyama mean-field equations. The model is used to analyze the diffusion of a streptavidin protein among different sized dextran obstacles. For this system, Ur is obtained by fitting the streptavidin experimental long-time diffusion coefficient Dlongversus the macromolecular concentration for D50 (indicating their molecular weight in kg mol-1) dextran obstacles. The obtained Dlong values show better quantitative agreement with experiments than those obtained with hard-core spheres. Moreover, once parametrized, the CESP model is also able to quantitatively predict Dlong and the anomalous exponent (α) for streptavidin diffusion among D10, D400 and D700 dextran obstacles. Dlong, the short-time diffusion coefficient (Dshort) and α are obtained from the BD simulations by using a new empirical expression, able to describe the full temporal evolution of the diffusion coefficient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo M Blanco
- Department of Material Science and Physical Chemistry, Barcelona University, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. and Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (IQTC), Barcelona University, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Josep Lluís Garcés
- Department of Chemistry, University of Lleida (UdL), 25003 Lleida, Spain.
| | - Sergio Madurga
- Department of Material Science and Physical Chemistry, Barcelona University, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. and Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (IQTC), Barcelona University, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Francesc Mas
- Department of Material Science and Physical Chemistry, Barcelona University, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. and Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (IQTC), Barcelona University, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
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