Coarse Grained Simulations of Star Polymer Melts

Description

A computational study on entangled polyethylene melts with different topologies is carried out by the TWENTANGLEMENT simulation technique. In our simulations, groups of 20 carbons are coarsegrained into one ‘blob’. Because of the high coarse-graining level,the effective potential between blobs becomes so soft that blob-blob bonds can cross each other. In order to prevent these unrealistic crossings, uncrossability constraints are applied. After successful simulations of linear polymers, we extended the program to handle branched polymers. We present dynamical and rheological properties of 3-arm star polyethylene melts, and discuss the similarities and differences with linear polymers of two and three star arm lengths. We also analyze the dynamics in terms of the Rouse modes for stars.

Period	4 Mar 2013
Event title	NWO/CW Study Group Meeting 2013: Chemistry in Relation to Physics and Materials Sciences
Event type	Conference
Organiser	Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
Location	Veldhoven, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International