Journal article
Polysoaps in Backbone-Selective Solvents: Effects of Side-Chain Length on Collapse Dynamics
Soft materials, v 2(1), pp 11-25
31 Dec 2004
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of model comb-graft heteropolymers were performed to understand general mechanistic features of coil-to-micelle relaxation after instantaneous quench from a nonselective solvent to solvent conditions selective for the backbone monomers and poor for the side-chain monomers. The systems considered were single bead-spring molecules with backbones of 30 monomers and 10 equally spaced side chains of 1, 5, 10, or 20 monomers each, immersed in dense liquids of 20,000 simple solvent particles. We find that the coil-to-micelle relaxation time, τ
r
, averaged over 50 independent trajectories for each set of topological parameters considered, decreases with increasing side-chain length. A two-stage relaxation mechanism is observed: (1) a fast collapse and aggregation of neighboring side chains to form a chain of "protomicelles," followed by (2) a slow intramolecular aggregation of protomicelles. Fast collapse dominates for molecules with relatively longer side chains due to relatively higher probabilities of initial contacts between side-chain monomers in different side chains, while slow intramolecular aggregation dominates for molecules with relatively shorter side chains.
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Details
- Title
- Polysoaps in Backbone-Selective Solvents: Effects of Side-Chain Length on Collapse Dynamics
- Creators
- Yelena Sliozberg - Department of Chemical Engineering , Drexel UniversityCameron F Abrams - Department of Chemical Engineering , Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Soft materials, v 2(1), pp 11-25
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis Group
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Chemical and Biological Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000222618900002
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-3042856479
- Other Identifier
- 991014970146704721
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Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Materials Science, Multidisciplinary