We report the design of a bottle-brush polymer whose architecture closely mimics the lubricating protein lubricin. Interaction forces, assessed using a Surface Forces Apparatus (SFA), between two mica surfaces fully covered by the polymer demonstrate that the polymer adopts a loop conformation giving rise to a weak and long-range repulsive interaction force between the surfaces. Under high comp...

The conformation of a polymer on a curved surface is high on the agenda for polymer science. We assume that the free energy of the system is the sum of bending energy of the polymer and the electrostatic attraction between the polymer and surface. As is also assumed, the polymer is very stiff with an invariant length for each segment so that we can neglect its tensile energy and view its length...

Measurements have been performed on thermally equilibrated conjugated-polymer/insulating-polymer bilayers, using specular and off-specular neutron reflectivity. While specular reflectivity is only sensitive to the structure normal to the sample, off-specular measurements can probe the structure of the buried polymer/polymer interface in the plane of the sample. Systematic analysis of the scatte...

We show that the microstructures of polycrystalline ice can serve as a confining template for one-dimensional assembly of colloidal nanoparticles. Upon simply freezing an aqueous colloid, the nanoparticles are excluded from ice grains and form chains in the ice veins. The nanoparticle chains are transferable and can be strengthened by polymer encapsulation. After coating with polyaniline shells...

In the present study, a new diacetylene compound (PDATAZ), which readily forms a complementary hydrogen bonding self-assembly at the air-water interface or in the solid state with barbituric acid (BA) or cyanuric acid (CA), was designed and synthesized. The photopolymerization studies of PDATAZ and its assembly with BA or CA have revealed some important insights on the chromatic properties of p...

We study the necking and pinch-off dynamics of liquid droplets that contain a semidilute polymer solution of polyacrylamide close to overlap concentration by combining microfluidics and single DNA observation. Polymeric droplets are stretched by passing them through the stagnation point of a T-shaped microfluidic junction. In contrast with the sudden breakup of Newtonian droplets, a stable neck...

A temperature-driven anchoring transition in a polymer/nematic fluid composite that is far from the bulk nematic-isotropic transition temperature is reported. A series of poly(methylheptyl acrylates) were studied to probe the subtle effects of the side chain structure of the polymer on control of the anchoring. A polymer-dispersed liquid crystal film made from TL205 and 1-methylheptyl acrylate ...

Abstract In this article, we review thermal transport in polymers with different morphologies from aligned fibers to bulk amorphous states. We survey early and recent efforts engineering high conductivity by fabricating large-scale molecular alignments. The experimentally realized extremely of polymer nanofibers is highlighted, understanding physics discussed. then transition the discussion an ...

Using the Flory-Huggins lattice model, we investigate the threading-unthreading equilibrium in a solution of linear flexible polymer chains and molecular nanotubes formed by covalently bonding the ringlike molecules, such as cyclodextrins (CDs). It is found that the threading-unthreading equilibrium depends on the temperature and the molar concentrations of the ringlike molecules and polymer ch...