受限状态聚合物熔体的分子动力学模拟

用粗粒化的分子动力学(MD)模拟方法从分子层次研究了受限于粗糙壁内的聚合物熔体的动力学性质. 结果表明, 对于链长较短的受限聚合物熔体体系, 随着膜厚的增加, 体系内部高分子链的松弛时间逐渐减少; 然而对于链长较长的受限体系, 聚合物链的松弛时间随着膜厚的增加先减少后增加. 推测这种由于链长的变化所引起的动力学性质的差异源自受限熔体内聚合物链聚集状态的改变, 并且通过考察交叠参数对这种改变进行了分析. 结果表明, 在膜厚增加的过程中, 决定受限状态高分子长链松弛机理的因素逐渐从受限效应转变成为链间的缠结效应.     

受限高分子薄膜界面动力学与缠结的关系

通过Monte Carlo模拟结合原始路径分析(PPA)的方法,阐述了缠结高分子薄膜的界面动力学与缠结程度的关系.研究发现,以吸附势能的临界值εwc≈-0.6 kBT附近为界,当墙壁-高分子作用势能从弱吸引到强排斥变化时,界面层中的链移动快于中心层,只有当墙壁的吸引作用增强到一定程度时,界面层中的链移动才会慢于中心层.界面动力学受到促进或阻碍可能与界面层和中心层的缠结程度直接相关:界面层的缠结程度保持在本体水平上基本不变;中心层的缠结程度在强吸引表面上低于界面层,而在弱吸引和排斥表面上高于界面层.此外,中心层和界面层中高分子链受限程度的变化对薄膜界面动力学行为的转变产生一定影响.对于薄膜中链密度分布情况随墙壁-高分子作用势能变化的分析为相关的物理化学机制提供了理论依据.     

双分散高分子薄膜中短链对长链缠结和动力学的影响

采用Monte Carlo微观模拟结合原始路径分析的方法,研究了分子量双分散的高分子薄膜中短链的质量分数对长链的缠结和动力学行为的影响.模拟发现,当短链的质量分数较大时,薄膜内缠结点之间的关联性较低,缠结点易于被解开,长链动力学受到链受限程度的控制,随着膜厚的减小单调减慢;当短链的质量分数较小时,薄膜内缠结点之间的关联性较高,缠结点不易被解开,缠结点数目和关联性共同导致长链动力学随膜厚的非单调变化.模拟结果为明晰分子量分布对高分子薄膜中链缠结和动力学行为的影响规律提供了有益参考.     

受限高分子链的静态与动态性质

受限条件下高分子链的静态与动态性质是高分子物理学研究的重要组成部分,也是生物物理学关注的焦点问题之一。相对于自由高分子链,受限高分子链往往随受限程度和受限区域的不同而表现出一系列独特的规律性。本文首先回顾了自由空间中高分子链的基本性质,然后重点介绍了在不同受限程度下高分子链的静态性质和动力学行为,对比了不同受限区域下这些性质的差异性,并且系统总结了流场诱导下高分子链过孔的经典理论及其详细推导过程。最后,展望了受限高分子链今后的发展方向。     

弱电场驱动下高分子链在周期管道内输运的模拟研究

采用Langevin动力学方法模拟研究了弱电场驱动下高分子链在无限长周期管道中的输运过程. 管道由长度相等的α和β两部分周期排列而成, 其中高分子链与α管道间存在相互吸引作用, 而与β管道间存在纯排斥作用. 模拟结果表明, 高分子链在输运过程中存在明显的受限阶段, 其逃离受限的方式与管道宽度有关且满足不同的规律. 对于窄管道, 高分子链在输运过程中呈直线伸展构型且运动具有“蛇爬行”特征. 高分子链逃离受限过程伴随着整条链的运动, 从而导致迁移率随高分子链长呈周期变化, 而且在迁移率极值位置, 高分子链投影长度与管道半周期之间存在简单的整数倍关系. 对于宽管道, 高分子链在输运过程中出现弯折构型且运动具有“蠕虫运动”特征. 当链长比较长时, 高分子链可通过链前端部分的伸长逃离受限, 从而导致迁移率与高分子链长度无关. 模拟结果可能有助于利用周期管道对不同长度的高分子链进行分离及可控输运.     

嫁接于平行板的受限紧密高分子链末端距分布函数的研究

采用剪除增加Rosenbluth方法(Pruned-enriched-Rosenbluth method,PERM)算法计算了嫁接于平行板的受限紧密高分子链的末端距分布函数.由于受限紧密高分子链具有各向异性,重点研究了平行板方向x轴上的分布函数P(x),发现P(x)可以表示为ln[P(x)/Pm(x)]/ND-5/3=a0+a1u+a2u2+a3u3(其中u=x/ND-2/3).这里N为链长,Pm(x)为分布函数P(x)的最大值,两平行板的间距为D+1.通过计算P(x)的Shannon熵发现末端距分布函数P(x)的Shannon熵可以用来描述高分子链受限的程度,Shannon熵对平行板间距的变化非常敏感,对于同一链长N,P(x)的Shannon熵会随着D的增大而迅速减小,超过临界值Dc会趋向一个定值,即当D≥Dc时Shannon熵将趋于稳定,也说明了此时受限条件对紧密高分子链影响非常小.同时临界值Dc与链长N有关,Dc~Nλ,其中λ=0.543,并进行了一定的理论分析.     

高分子链在球内表面上的吸附/排空转变

应用自洽场理论(SCFT)研究了受限于球内的高分子溶液的结构,重点关注高分子链在受限壁附近的行为.根据自洽场理论数值计算结果,讨论了球半径、高分子与球限制壁的相互作用、高分子平均浓度等因素对球内高分子浓度分布的影响.从高分子浓度分布和吸附/排空层厚度可以发现,在一定的条件下,受限的高分子在受限壁上会发生吸附/排空转变.吸附/排空转变与受限球大小、高分子链长和平均浓度,以及高分子链与受限壁之间相互作用都有关系.理论预测发生吸附/排空转变时的高分子与球限制壁的临界相互作用参数与链长的倒数成线性关系,且斜率与球半径有关.限制球越小,要发生吸附/排空转变,需要高分子与球之间有更大的临界吸引能.     

环形高分子单链塌缩的熔球中间态及其热力学解释

采用动态蒙特卡洛分子模拟研究了环形高分子单链在不良溶剂中发生塌缩转变时可逆地出现具有核-壳结构特征的熔球中间态,发现该结构特征与相同链长的线形单链基本相同,表明其只与链的长短有关,而与链端基的特殊效应无关.本工作将这一现象与单链单晶在其平衡熔点附近出现的类似现象相互关联,采用表面预溶模型来解释单链塌缩出现熔球中间态的热力学机理.分子量越低,熔球越小,表面预溶现象就越显著,塌缩转变随热力学条件变化就越缓慢.实际的高分子体系由于链内拓扑缠结,在表面未必能充分释放片段链,达不到理论预期的平衡态.表面预溶使得相分离临界点或晶体熔点附近在界面厚度方向上存在链单元能量状态不连续分布,这在微观分子水平上与临界界面连续浓度梯度的传统理论处理不一致,为我们深入理解高分子流体界面的微观结构带来帮助.     

均聚物/两嵌段共聚物/均聚物三元聚合物共混体系界面性质的Monte Carlo模拟

利用格子Monte Carlo(MC)模拟方法研究了两嵌段共聚物增容剂AB的链长及浓度对不相容性均聚物A/B共混体系界面性质的影响.研究结果表明,当两嵌段共聚物的体积分数φC=0.05时,随着两嵌段共聚物分子链长NC从10增至20,界面厚度剧烈减小,而当两嵌段共聚物的分子链长NC进一步增加到60时,界面厚度轻微增加;两嵌段共聚物的取向参数q随着分子链长的增长而增加,即共聚物分子在垂直界面方向的拉伸程度增大.当两嵌段共聚物AB的分子链长NC固定为10时,随着链浓度增大,界面厚度增加,共聚物分子链取向参数q减小,共聚物分子在垂直界面方向的拉伸程度减小.     

均聚物分子链长对A/AB/B聚合物共混体系界面性质影响的Monte Carlo模拟研究

利用格子Monte Carlo(MC)模拟方法研究了均聚物/两嵌段共聚物/均聚物(A/AB/B)共混体系中均聚物分子链长对界面性质的影响.研究结果表明,当两嵌段共聚物的分子链长N_C=20时,随着均聚物分子链长N_H从10增至60,界面厚度增加,取向参数q随着均聚物分子链长的增长而先减小后增大,即共聚物分子在垂直界面方向的拉伸程度先减弱后增强;当两嵌段共聚物的分子链长N_C=60时,随均聚物分子链长的增加,界面厚度减小,共聚物分子链取向参数q减小,分子在垂直界面方向的拉伸程度减弱.     

Influence of molecular topology on the static and dynamic properties of single polymer chain in solution

The influence of molecular topology on the structural and dynamic properties of polymer chain in solution with ring structure, three-arm branched structure, and linear structure are studied by molecular dynamics simulation. At the same degree of polymerization (N), the ring-shaped chain possesses the smallest size and largest diffusion coefficient. With increasing N, the difference of the radii of gyration between the three types of polymer chains increases, whereas the difference of the diffusion coefficients among them decreases. However, the influence of the molecular topology on the static and the dynamic scaling exponents is small. The static scaling exponents decrease slightly, and the dynamic scaling exponents increase slightly, when the topology of the polymer chain is changed from linear to ring-shaped or three-arm branched architecture. The dynamics of these three types of polymer chain in solution is Zimm-like according to the dynamic scaling exponents and the dynamic structure factors.     

Effect of branching and confinement on star-branched polymeric systems

The effect of confinement, number of branches (functionality), and size of the molecules on various properties as a function of temperature of star-branched polymers confined between two walls was studied using Monte Carlo simulations with the parallel tempering technique. The coil-to-globule transition and the liquidlike to solidlike transition, similar to those observed for linear chains, were characterized in all systems by changes in the heat capacity, internal energy, and radius of gyration. The transitions were also characterized by the most probable isomeric structure at a given temperature. The radius of gyration of the star polymers was smaller than the values of linear chains when the number of arms f increased. For star chains with more than f=5 arms the values of the radius of gyration, and therefore the size of the molecules, were similar for every condition of confinement studied, especially at higher temperatures. As confinement was increased, the difference in the radius of gyration of linear chains and star polymers became even larger. The coil-to-globule transition temperatures shifted to higher temperatures as the size of the chains and the number of arms in a molecule were increased. Effects of confinement were higher on the properties of the system at the smallest separations (less than twice the monomer diameter), where the coil-to-globule transition shifted to lower temperatures. The liquidlike to solidlike transition was present at almost the same temperature for different conditions of confinement, chain size, and number of arms. The behavior of the systems for separations between the walls greater than five bead diameters was similar to the behavior in the unconfined case. Hence, no considerable effect of confinement was found above this separation.     

The properties of a single polymer chain in solvent confined in a slit: A molecular dynamics simulation

A single polymer chain in solvent confined in a slit formed by two parallel plates is studied by using molecular dynamics simulation method. The square radii of gyration and diffusion behaviors of polymers are greatly affected by the distance between the two plates, but they do not follow the same way. The chain size decays drastically with increasing h (h is the distance between two plates), until a basin occurs, and a universal h/〈R _g〉₀ dependence for polymer chains with different degrees of polymerization can be obtained. While, for the chain’s diffusion coefficient, it decays monotonously and there is no such basin-like behavior. Furthermore, we studied the radial distribution function of confined polymer chains to explain the reason why there is a difference for the decay behaviors between dynamic properties and static properties. Besides, we also give the degree of confinement dependence of the static scaling exponent for a single polymer chain. Our work provides an efficient way to estimate the dynamics and static properties of confined polymer chains, and also helps us to understand the behavior of polymer chains under confinement.     

Coarse grained model of diffusion in entangled bidisperse polymer melts

Chain diffusion is studied in mixtures of bidisperse linear polymers of same chemical identity by means of simulations. The two subpopulations are moderately to highly entangled, with the shorter chain length N(S), fulfilling N(S)N(e)> or =5. To this end, a coarse grained model calibrated to reproduce both the structure and dynamics of chains in monodisperse entangled melts is used [A. Rakshit and R. C. Picu, J. Chem. Phys. 125, 164907 (2006)]. Its performance in reproducing chain dynamics in a polydisperse melt is tested by extensively comparing the results with those obtained from an equivalent fine scale representation of the same system (a bead-spring model). The coarse grained model is used further to investigate the scaling of the diffusion coefficient with the length of the two types of chains and its dependence on the respective fractions. The model reproduces many features observed experimentally. For example, the diffusion coefficient of one of the chain types decreases with increasing the length of the other type chains. It is shown that, in this model, this effect is not linked to constraint release. When the matrix chains become sufficiently long, their length does not influence the diffusion coefficient of the short chains anymore. The diffusion coefficient of the short chains scales with their weight fraction in a manner consistent with experimental observations. In mixtures, the dynamics of the short chains is slower and that of the long chains is marginally faster than in their respective monodisperse melts.     

Structure and dynamics of short chain molecules in disordered porous materials: a molecular dynamics simulation study

The static and dynamic properties of short polymer chains in disordered materials are studied using discontinuous molecular dynamics simulations. The polymers are modeled as chains of hard spheres and the matrix is a collection of fixed hard spheres. The simulations show that the chain size is a nonmonotonic function of the matrix concentration for all polymer concentrations. The dependence of polymer diffusion D on the degree of polymerization N becomes stronger as the matrix concentration is increased. At high matrix concentrations we observe a decoupling between translational and rotational diffusion, i.e., the rotational relaxation time becomes very large but the translational diffusion is not affected significantly. We attribute this to the trapping of a small number of polymers. Under these conditions the polymer chains diffuse via a hopping mechanism.     

Linear and non-linear dynamics of entangled linear polymer melts by modified tunable coarse-grained level dissipative particle dynamics

Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a well-known simulation method for soft materials and has been applied to a variety of systems. However, doubts have been cast recently on its adequacy because of upper coarse-graining limitations, which could prevent the method from being applicable to the whole mesoscopic range. This paper proposes a modified coarse-grained level tunable DPD method and demonstrates its performance for linear polymeric systems. The method can reproduce both static and dynamic properties of entangled linear polymer systems well. Linear and non-linear viscoelastic properties were predicted and despite being a mesoscale technique, the code is able to capture the transition from the plateau regime to the terminal zone with decreasing angular frequency, the transition from the Rouse to the entangled regime with increasing molecular weight and the overshoots in both shear stress and normal-stress differences upon start-up of steady shear.     

Studies on the behavior of nanoconfined homopolymers with cyclic chain architecture

We have performed Monte Carlo simulations to study the effect of cyclic architecture on the behavior of homopolymer chains under several conditions of confinement. The collapse of the rings in two stages, a coil-to-globule and a liquidlike-to-solidlike transition, was observed even at extreme confinement. Both transitions were observed at lower temperatures than for linear chains of the same length, 2%-5% lower for unconfined systems, and 10%-15% lower for wall separations below three bond lengths due to the effect of confinement. When the plates separation approached the two-dimensional regime, the coil-to-globule transition shifted to lower temperatures. The inverse trend was observed when the chain length was increased. In the collapsed state, the average size and conformations of linear and cyclic molecules of same length were similar independently of confinement. At temperatures near the coil-to-globule transition, the radius of gyration of unconfined linear chains, [R(g)(2)](linear), became larger than for the cyclic chains, [R(g)(2)](cyclic), and this difference increased considerably with confinement. The radius of gyration ratio [R(g)(2)](linear)/[R(g)(2)](cyclic) in this region decreased rapidly. The decrease was more pronounced and occurred at lower temperatures for slit width confinements. At higher temperatures, in the coil state, the radius of gyration ratio became nearly constant for a given separation, and varied from 0.56 for unconfined systems to 0.47 when the chain was completely confined between the walls. This reduction was attributed to the higher increase in the average size of linear chains with confinement when compared with cyclic chains, due to architectural restrictions.     

Dynamic evolution in coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of polyethylene melts

We test a coarse-grained model assigned based on united atom simulations of C50 polyethylene to seven chain lengths ranging from C76 to C300. The prior model accurately reproduced static and dynamic properties. For the dynamics, the coarse-grained time evolution was scaled by a constant value [t=alphatCG] predictable based on the difference in intermolecular interactions. In this contribution, we show that both static and dynamic observables have continued accuracy when using the C50 coarse-grained force field for chains representing up to 300 united atoms. Pair distribution functions for the longer chain systems are unaltered, and the chain dimensions present the expected N0.5 scaling. To assess dynamic properties, we compare diffusion coefficients to experimental values and united atom simulations, assign the entanglement length using various methods, examine the applicability of the Rouse model as a function of N, and compare tube diameters extracted using a primitive path analysis to experimental values. These results show that the coarse-grained model accurately reproduces dynamic properties over a range of chain lengths, including systems that are entangled.     

线形、梳形和星形高分子静态和动态性质的模拟

以梳形高分子为纽带,基于粗粒化分子动力学模拟方法,研究了线形、梳形和星形拓扑结构高分子的静态和动态性质,以揭示稀溶液中高分子链行为与链拓扑结构依赖关系的一般性规律.研究结果表明,随着线形-梳形-星形的链拓扑结构转变,回转半径的标度关系由仅依赖分子聚合度转变为同时依赖链聚合度与臂数或侧链数.分析了星形高分子和梳形高分子的静态和动态性质的特征规律.星形高分子的臂数增加使其尺寸迅速减小,形状则由长椭球形转变为类球形,且扩散系数也随之增加;其均方回转半径(〈R_g〉)和扩散系数(D)与分子聚合度(N)及臂数(f)的标度规律为〈R_g〉~N~(0.581)f~(-0.402),D~N~(-0.763)f~(0.227).梳形高分子的静态与动态性质与分子聚合度及侧链数的依赖关系为〈R_g〉~N~(0.597)f~(-0.212)(每个支化点只有一条侧链)和〈R_g〉~N~(0.599)f~(-0.316)(每个支化点有多条侧链).