Organic/inorganic nanohybrid materials have attracted particular scientific and technological interest because they combine the properties of the organic and the inorganic component. Inorganic nanoparticles exhibit interesting electrical, optical, magnetic and/or catalytic properties, which are related with their nano-scale dimensions. However, their high surface-to-volume ratio often induces a...

We present a Monte Carlo study of the surface anchoring of a nematic fluid on swollen layers of grafted liquid crystalline chain molecules. The liquid crystalline particles are modeled by soft repulsive ellipsoids, and the chains are made of the same particles. An appropriately modified version of the configurational bias Monte Carlo algorithm is introduced, which removes and redistributes chai...

Experimental and mathematical modeling analyses were used for controlling melt free-radical grafting of vinylic monomers on polyolefins and, thereby, reducing the disturbance of undesired cross-linking of polyolefins. Response surface, desirability function, and artificial intelligence methodologies were blended to modeling/optimization of grafting reaction in terms of vinylic monomer content, ...

We show that elastomeric surfaces can be tailored using "mechanically assembled monolayers" (MAMs), structures that are fabricated by combining self-assembly of surface grafting molecules with mechanical manipulation of the grafting points in the underlying elastic surface. The versatility of this surface modification method is demonstrated by fabricating MAMs with semifluorinated (SF) molecule...

We provide an in-depth study of pseudo-spectral numerical methods associated with modeling the self-assembly of molten mixed polymer brushes in the framework of self-consistent field theory (SCFT). SCFT of molten polymer brushes has proved numerically challenging in the past because of sharp features that arise in the self-consistent pressure field at the grafting surface due to the chain end t...

Cavitand molecules having double bond terminated alkyl chains and different bridging groups at the upper rim have been grafted on H-terminated Si(100) surface via photochemical hydrosilylation of the double bonds. Pure and mixed monolayers have been obtained from mesitylene solutions of either pure cavitand or cavitand/1-octene mixtures. Angle resolved high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectr...

This paper present the most relevant advances in the fields of: i) cellulose fibres surface modification; ii) cellulose fibres-based composite materials; and iii) nanocomposites based on cellulose whiskers or starch plateletlike nanoparticles. The real breakthroughs achieved in the first topic concern the use of solvent-free grafting process (plasma) and the grafting of the matrix at the surfac...