Multi-Scale Simulation of Hyperbranched Polymers

Polyolefins Formed by Chain Walking Catalysis-A Matter of Branching Density Only?

Recently developed chain walking (CW) catalysis is an elegant approach to produce materials with controllable structure and properties. However, there is still a lack in understanding of how the reaction mechanism influences the macromolecular structures. In this study, a series of dendritic polyethylenes (PE) synthesized by Pd-α-diimine-complex through CW catalysis (CWPE) is investigated by means of theory and experiment. Thereby, the exceptional ability of in situ tailoring polymer structure by varying synthesis parameters was exploited to tune the branching architecture, which allowed us to establish a precise relationship between synthesis, structure, and solution properties. The systematically produced polymers were characterized by state-of-the-art multidetector separation and neutron scattering experiments as well as atomic force microscopy to access molecular properties of CWPE. On a global scale, the CWPE appear in a worm-like conformation independently on the synthesis conditions. However, severe differences in their contraction factors suggested that CWPE differ substantially in topology. These observations were verified by NMR studies that showed that CWPE possess a constant total number of branches but varying branching distribution. Small angle neutron scattering experiments gave access to structural characteristics from global to segmental scale and revealed the unique heterogeneity of CWPE, which is predominantly based on differences in their dendritic side chains. The experimental data were compared to theoretical CW structures modeled with different reaction-to-walking probabilities. Simple theoretical arguments predict a crossover from dendritic to linear topologies yielding a structural range from purely linear to dendritic chain growth. Yet, comparison of theoretical and empirical scattering curves gave the first evidence that a transition state to worm-like topologies is actually experimentally accessible. This crossover regime is characterized by linear global features and dendritic local substructures contrary to randomly hyperbranched systems. Instead, the obtained CWPE systems have characteristics of disordered dendritic bottle brushes and can be adjusted by the walking rate/reaction probability of the catalyst.

Exploring the Structural Properties of Positively Charged Peptide Dendrimers

We report a combined experimental and computational approach to study the structural behavior of positively charged peptide dendrimers. Third-generation dendrimers containing combinations of positive/neutral amino acid residues in the different dendrimer generations were synthesized and their overall size evaluated using diffusion NMR. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to obtain a comprehensive description of the molecular-level phenomena substantiating the structural differences observed. Comparison of the results presented with previous findings reveals a striking charge-dependent tendency in these systems, where the simple number and placement of charged amino acids in the sequence allows an extensive control over the exhibited structural features. Indeed, we observe that peptide dendrimers bearing progressively higher amounts of charged residues are characterized by an increasing structural plasticity, with a myriad of conformational states equally accessible to them. On the other hand, dendrimers containing only small amounts of charged residues evidence, to some extent, a characteristic structural rigidity.

HBP Builder: A Tool to Generate Hyperbranched Polymers and Hyperbranched Multi-Arm Copolymers for Coarse-grained and Fully Atomistic Molecular Simulations

Computer simulation has been becoming a versatile tool that can investigate detailed information from the microscopic scale to the mesoscopic scale. However, the crucial first step of molecular simulation is model building, particularly for hyperbranched polymers (HBPs) and hyperbranched multi-arm copolymers (HBMCs) with complex and various topological structures. Unlike well-defined polymers, not only the molar weight of HBPs/HBMCs with polydispersity, but the HBPs/HBMCs with the same degree of polymerization (DP) and degree of branching (DB) also have many possible topological structures, thus making difficulties for user to build model in molecular simulation. In order to build a bridge between model building and molecular simulation of HBPs and HBMCs, we developed HBP Builder, a C language open source HBPs/HBMCs building toolkit. HBP Builder implements an automated protocol to build various coarse-grained and fully atomistic structures of HBPs/HBMCs according to user's specific requirements. Meanwhile, coarse-grained and fully atomistic output structures can be directly employed in popular simulation packages, including HOOMD, Tinker and Gromacs. Moreover, HBP Builder has an easy-to-use graphical user interface and the modular architecture, making it easy to extend and reuse it as a part of other program.

Molecular dynamics simulation studies of hyperbranched polyglycerols and their encapsulation behaviors of small drug molecules

Computer simulation could disclose more details about the conformations of HPGs and their encapsulation behaviors of guest molecules.