良溶剂中环形高分子单链的结构与动力学性质的模拟研究

本文采用多粒子碰撞动力学与分子动力学耦合的模拟方法研究了环形高分子单链在良溶剂中的静态与动态性质,并与线形分子进行了对比.研究发现,环形高分子链内粒子之间的平均距离小于线形链,即粒子排列得更加紧密;相应的均方回转半径也小于线形链,线形链与环形链的均方回转半径的比值为1.77;同时,环形链扩散的速度也比线形链快,两者比值为1.10.模拟结果揭示了扩散行为是排斥体积作用和流体力学相互作用耦合的结果,在扩散过程中,流体力学相互作用消减了排斥体积作用对扩散行为的贡献.此外,通过对有和没有流体力学相互作用的多粒子碰撞动力学得到的结果作对比,研究了流体力学相互作用对高分子静态和动态行为的影响,结果表明,流体力学相互作用使高分子链在极稀溶液中的扩散速度变快.     

高分子链在微通道剪切流中的迁移机制及浓度的影响

提出了剪切流中高分子链在微通道内的迁移机制.该机制采用珠-簧链模型表示高分子链,高分子链受剪切作用而被拉伸,相邻珠子之间的流体力学相互作用产生了对称的扰动流场,由于在通道壁面附近对称的流场被破坏,壁面与高分子链间的流体力学相互作用使高分子远离壁面,在强受限时,这种壁面诱导的流体力学相互作用会被屏蔽掉.利用耗散粒子动力学数值模拟了高分子链在微通道压力流中的迁移行为.数值模拟结果表明,在受限较弱时,高分子链向远离壁面的方向迁移,并随着流场增强,远离壁面的趋势越强;在受限较强时,高分子链不会发生远离壁面的行为.实验研究了长链高分子λ-DNA在壁面附近的迁移行为,实验结果及模拟结果与迁移机制预测的结果相吻合,验证了迁移机制的正确性.高分子链浓度会影响高分子链的迁移行为,当高分子链浓度较大时,高分子链在通道宽度方向不会发生迁移现象,意味着随着浓度的增大,壁面与高分子链间的流体力学相互作用会逐渐被屏蔽.     

高分子动力学的单链模型

高分子单链模型是高分子稀溶液理论研究的基本模型.对其进行深入地分析,不仅有助于解决高分子稀溶液体系中溶液黏度和分子链扩散等基本问题,而且能够增进人们对高分子链结构与溶液性质间关联性的理解.虽然基于经典连续性介质力学的流体动力学理论可以定性,甚至半定量地获得稀溶液的一些重要性质,但是,随着科学技术的发展,人们从分子水平上建立了许多描述高分子稀溶液性质的模型和理论,期望能够定量地描述高分子稀溶液的性质.本文以高分子稀溶液中3个典型的单链模型为例(包括:不含流体力学相互作用的Rouse模型、含二体流体力学相互作用的Zimm模型和含多体流体力学相互作用的部分穿透球模型),综述高分子稀溶液的重要性质,并详细地给出其动力学方程的推导过程及其重要的研究进展.特别是,对于Rouse模型,本文还将其预言结果拓展到了短链高分子流体体系;此外,还介绍了这一领域的关键科学问题、发展前景和研究方向.     

磁性高分子链的磁性质和构象性质的Monte Carlo模拟

采用退火 (Annealing)MonteCarlo方法 ,从高温到低温顺序模拟了简立方格点上考虑最近邻Ising相互作用的磁性高分子链在不同温度的磁性质和构象性质 .磁性高分子链在低温下存在自发磁矩 ,无限长链的临界温度Tc=1 77± 0 0 5J kB.在临界温度附近 ,高分子链经历了从伸展的无规线团到紧缩球体的塌缩相变 .对链的尺寸、形状、近邻数及能量的分析表明 ,高分子链的构象性质从温度Tc=1 77开始发生较明显的变化 ,这表明高分子Ising链的相变是Ising相互作用和链节运动协同作用的结果 .     

高分子体系的自洽场理论方法及其应用

高分子体系的自洽场理论(self-consistent field theory, SCFT)是基于平均场近似的粗粒化模型, 特别适合研究发生相分离的非均相高分子体系在平衡态的相结构及相图, 其突出的优点在于能够考虑链拓扑构型、链序列分布等链的细节特点. 本文将对高分子体系的SCFT方法作较为详尽的介绍. 重点根据多年来我们自己的研究工作并结合实例, 简要介绍SCFT方法在具有复杂拓扑结构的多嵌段共聚高分子本体及稀溶液中的微相分离形态的预测、表面接枝高分子的纳米颗粒间的相互作用、含液晶体系的界面问题以及表面锚泊高分子链的囊泡形状问题等诸多前沿领域的具体应用. 最后, 展望了SCFT方法的可能发展方向和应用前景.     

高分子凝聚态基本物理问题研究学术交流总结会议

中国科学院重大研究项目、国家自然科学基金重大项目“高分子凝聚态的基本物理问题研究”的年终学术交流总结会议,于1988年12月上旬在广州召开。该项目的主要研究内容是从高分子链单元间的相互作用出发,研究高分子凝聚态的一些基本问题。如分子链的凝聚过程,液晶     

共聚物/表面活性剂体系微观与宏观粘度

高分子与表面活性剂的相互作用，无论从基础研究还是应用研究均很有意义＊．表面活性剂和高分子相互作用往往可以使高分子链的的象变化，例如通过生成分子缔合复合作问（associatedcomPleX），改变高分子链的静电相互作用，可引起高分子链的舒展和卷曲．另一方面，高分子也影响表面活性剂的物理化学性质．例如，溶液表面张力、粘度、电导、表现临界胶束浓度（＊＊C）和聚集数（＊叫等物理参数。‘］．在实用方面，在高分子和表面活性剂相互作用的复合体中，表面活性剂分子排列接近生物膜结构，可作为模拟生物酶催化的模型体系问．由超高分…     

高分子链的去拥挤转变及低温流动

简述了拥挤理论的基本原理,运用拥挤理论来说明高分子链间弱相互作用对高分子链所处的状态的影响,特别是对高分子玻璃化转变的影响.在实验中,采用固体核磁共振方法探测高分子的链间邻近度,并比较了不同链间邻近度的高分子样品在玻璃化转变温度以下的压力诱导流行行为,发现即使测试温度比高分子玻璃化转变温度低132℃,高分子链在压力下依...     

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.     

高分子线性柔性链在超滤过程中第一类突变现象的观察

利用一种双层结构的膜屏蔽了每个微孔所产生的流场之间的相互作用,从而首次观测到理论上预计的高分子线性柔性链在超滤过程中的第一类突变现象,即仅当宏观流速高于一宏观阈值时,高分子长链方可通过尺寸远小于链无扰半径的微孔,且该宏观阈值与高分子链的长短无关.另外,实验中的过滤膜含有多个微孔,实验结果显示,当一给定的宏观流速低于宏观阈值时,部分微孔会被无法通过的较长的高分子链堵塞,造成未堵塞微孔中的微观流速大于微观阈值.因此,较短的高分子链可从未堵塞的微孔通过滤膜.     

Compression of Polymer Brushes Under a Lateral Force

Summary: The influence of a lateral force (or lateral shear) acting on chains in a polymer brush is investigated theoretically. Brushes consisting of chains with temperature dependent anisotropic interactions between monomers (main‐chain mesogenic groups) are considered. It is shown that a lateral force applied to polymer brush induces its compression. In contrast to a conventional brush, the compression of brush, capable of forming a liquid crystalline (LC) state, can be caused by comparatively small shear forces. Moreover, such shear forces can induce a phase transition of a brush into the tilted LC state with a several‐fold decrease in brush thickness. These results allow us to predict a possibility to observe a decrease in brush thickness in a real experiment with reasonably values of shear rate.

Model of a chain in a polymer brush under an influence of lateral force p.     

毛细管内高分子溶液的浓度分布

采用连续自洽场理论分析了毛细管中发生凝胶化之前的聚合物溶液浓度分布的影响因素及其规律. 结果表明, 体系尺寸有限时, 改变聚合物链段、溶剂与壁面的相互作用参数之差, 聚合物溶液浓度分布会发生贫化/吸附转变; 临界作用参数与聚合物链长的倒数呈线性关系, 且拟合常数与体系尺寸、聚合物溶液平均体积分数有关; 聚合物分子量分布为多分散时, 分子量较低的组分更容易接近容器壁面, 分子量较大的组分则相反. 总之, 增加聚合物溶液浓度、链长, 选择优良溶剂, 减小体系尺寸等都会使浓度分布更加均匀.     

Structure of Adsorbed Polymer Chains: A Monte Carlo Study

The structure of adsorbed polymer chains was studied using simplified lattice models. The model chains were adsorbed on an impenetrable surface with an attractive potential. The dynamic Monte Carlo simulations based in the Metropolis scheme were carried out using these models. The influence of the internal chain architecture (linear, star‐branched and ring chains) and the degree of adsorption on the chain's structure was studied. It was shown that for weakly adsorbed chain regime the ring polymers which exhibit an almost twice as high degree of adsorption compared to linear and star chains have a higher number of adsorbed parts of chain (trains). But the length of such train remains almost the same for all types of a polymer chain. Star‐branched chains exhibit a slightly different change in number and the mean length of trains, loops and tails with the temperature and the chain total length compared to two other types of chain.     

Macromolecular Crowding and the Sizes of Neutral Flexible Polymer Chains: The Role of Colloids Sizes and Concentrations

In the present work, we revisit the effect of macromolecular crowding on the sizes of flexible neutral polymer chains. Motivated by recent experimental measurements on crowding effects on neutral flexible polymers chains, we perform Monte Carlo simulations on a model system consisting of hard spheres (HS) and a neutral flexible polymer chain. We find that, depending on the ratio of the sizes of the colloidal particles to the sizes of the polymer chain, and thus, on the extent of the colloid partitioning among the chain segments and the solution, the flexible polymeric coil may be either continuously compressed, or initially compressed followed by a reswelling at high enough colloid concentration. The chain behavior is thus nonmonotonic, a point which, apart from the work of Khalatur et al., has not so far been stressed in simulations of flexible polymer chains under crowding conditions. A thermodynamic model for the polymer–colloid interactions based on the Gibbs–Duhem equation and on a “Flory‐type” argument is also presented, emphasizing the indirect influence of macromolecular crowding on the monomers chemical potential. We show explicitly that under crowding conditions, the colloids are driven into the most compact coil states. These analytical results are compared with the results of the potential of mean force between the chain center of mass and the colloids obtained from the Monte Carlo simulations, and a reasonable agreement is found. The implications of the aforementioned results are further discussed in the context of biological systems, specially those for which macromolecular crowding is supposed to play the important role of including preferentially other (charged) macromolecules into the colloid‐compressed polymer phase.

     

Chemical Communication between Organometallic Single-Chain Polymer Nanoparticles

Chemical communication between macromolecules was studied by observing the controlled single chain collapse that ensues the exchange of a metal cross-linker between two polymer chains. The rhodium (I) organometallic cross-linker transfer from a low molecular weight collapsed polybutadiene to a larger polymer was followed using size exclusion chromatography. The increased effective molarity in the larger polymer seems to be the driving force for the metal migration. Thus, we demonstrate here a strategy for transferring a molecular signal that induces chain collapse of a polymer chain based on non-covalent interactions, mimicking biological behaviors reminiscent of signal transductions in proteins.     

Polymer translocation through a nanopore. II. Excluded volume effect

Following our previous study of a Gaussian chain translocation, we have investigated the transport of a self-avoiding chain from one sphere to another sphere through a narrow pore, using the self-consistent field theory formalism. The free energy landscape for polymer translocation is significantly modified by excluded volume interactions among monomers. The free energy barrier for the placement of one of the chain ends at the pore depends on the chain length N nonmonotonically, in contrast to the N-independence for Gaussian chains. This results in a nonmonotonic dependence of the average arrival time [tau0] on N for self-avoiding chains. When the polymer chain is partitioned between the donor and recipient spheres, a local free energy minimum develops, depending on the strength w of the excluded volume interaction and the relative sizes of the donor and recipient spheres. If the sizes of spheres are comparable, the average translocation time tau (the average time taken by the polymer, after the arrival at the pore, to convert from the donor to the recipient) increases with an increase in w for a fixed N value. On the other hand, for the highly asymmetric sizes of the donor and recipient spheres, tau decreases with an increase in w. As in the case of Gaussian chains, tau depends nonmonotonically on the pore length.     

Dynamics of Adsorbed Star‐Branched Polymer Chains: A Computer Simulation Study

The simple cubic‐lattice model of polymer chains was used to study the dynamic properties of adsorbed, branched polymers. The model star‐branched chains consisted of f = 3 arms of equal lengths. The chain was modeled with excluded volume, that is, in good solvent conditions. The only interaction assumed was a contact potential between polymer segments and an impenetrable surface. This potential was varied to cover both weak and strong adsorption regimes. The classical Metropolis sampling algorithm was used for models of star‐branched polymers in order to calculate the dynamic properties of adsorbed chains. It was shown that long‐time dynamics (diffusion constant) and short‐time dynamics (the longest relaxation time) were different for weak and strong adsorption. The diffusion of weakly adsorbed chains was found to be qualitatively the same as for free nonadsorbed chains, whereas strongly adsorbed chains behaved like two‐dimensional polymers. The time‐dependent properties of structural elements such as tails, loops, and trains were also determined.

The mean lifetimes of tails, loops, and trains versus the bead number for the chain with N = 799 beads for the case of the weak adsorption ε_a = −0.3.     

Chain segment ordering in uniaxially strained networks: A deuterium NMR investigation

The deuterium NMR (²H-NMR) is used for probing the chain segment orientation in polymer networks under uniaxial stress. The method is based on the observation of an incomplete time averaging of quadrupolar interactions affixed to deuterated segments. The samples are end-linked polydimethylsiloxane networks. The ²H-NMR experiments are performed either on labelled network chains or an labelled probe polymer chains dissolved in the network. The basic results are the following: — The induced uniaxial order is related to a uniaxial dynamics of chain segments around the direction of the applied constraint. — A permanent orientation is observed on free polymer chains dissolved in the deformed networks. — The mean degrees of orientational order induced along short and long chains in bimodal networks are the same. These experimental facts appear as evidences for cooperative orientational couplings between chain segments in the deformed networks.