Characteristics of relaxed density profile and conformation of polymer chains are studied by a Monte Carlo simulation on a discrete lattice in three dimensions using different segmental (kink-jump K, crank-shaft C, reptation R) dynamics. Three distinct density regimes, substrate, bulk, and interface, are identified. With the KC segmental dynamics we find that the substrate coverage grows with a...

Characteristics of relaxed density profile and conformation of polymer chains are studied by a Monte Carlo simulation on a discrete lattice in three dimensions using different segmental (kink-jump K, crank-shaft C, reptation R) dynamics. Three distinct density regimes, substrate, bulk, and interface, are identified. With the KC segmental dynamics we find that the substrate coverage grows with a...

The conformation of a polymer chain in solution is coupled to the local structure of the surrounding solvent and can undergo large changes in response to variations in solvent density and temperature. The many-body effects of solvent on the structure of an n-mer polymer chain can be formally mapped to an exact n-body solvation potential. Here, we use a pair decomposition of this n-body potentia...

Conjugated polymers (CPs) are an important class of organic semiconductors that combine novel optoelectronic properties with simple processing from organic solvents. It is important to study CP conformation in solution to understand the physics of these materials and because it affects the properties of solution-processed films. Single-molecule techniques are unique in their ability to extract ...

We analyze structural and conformational properties in a simulated bead-spring model of a nonentangled, supercooled polymer melt. We explore the statics of the model via various structure factors, involving not only the monomers, but also the center of mass (CM). We find that the conformation of the chains and the CM-CM structure factor, which is well described by a recently proposed approximat...

Bottlebrush polymers are highly branched macromolecules with potential applications in antifouling coatings, rheological modifiers, and drug delivery systems. However, the solution conformation of bottlebrush polymers has been studied in only a limited set of materials made primarily by grafting-from polymerization. Here we present small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements on a series ...

Conformations of individual macromolecules of the biopolymer xanthan were investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Xanthan from very dilute solutions (1 ppm) was allowed to adsorb onto freshly cleaved mica and examined using tapping mode AFM under ambient conditions. The secondary structure of xanthan was probed by heating the polymer and gradually cooling, which denatured and renature...

Recently, charge balanced polyampholytes (PA) have been found to form tough and self-healing hydrogels. This class of physical hydrogels have a very high equilibrated polymer concentration in water (ca. 40-50 wt%), and are strongly viscoelastic. They are synthesized by random copolymerization of equal amounts of oppositely charged monomers at a high concentration, followed by a dialysis process...