Elastic contact stiffness and contact resistance for the Weierstrass profile

The Weierstrass series comprises a system of superposed self-affine sine waves that can be used to define a simple idealization of a two-dimensional fractal rough surface profile. The load-compliance relation for the contact of this profile with a rigid plane is here estimated using Westergaard's solution for the contact of a single sine wave with a plane and various approximations concerning the interaction of the different terms in the series. These approximations are compared with a numerical solution for the contact of the profile defined by the first few terms of the series. Once the load-compliance relation is established, the electrical contact resistance can be determined, using an analogy between the conduction and incremental elastic contact problems. The results show that these simple estimates give quite good predictions of the relations between load, compliance and contact resistance. They also confirm that these relations are largely determined by the coarse scale features of the surface profile, in contrast to the predictions of classical asperity model theories.     

Molecular level studies of polymer behaviors at the water interface using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy

Industrial plastics, biomedical polymers and numerous other polymeric systems are contacted with water for everyday functions and after disposal. Probing the interfacial molecular interactions between widely used polymers and water yields valuable information that can be extrapolated to macroscopic polymer/water interfacial behaviors so scientists can better understand polymer bio-compatibility, hygroscopic tendencies and improve upon beneficial polymer behavior in water. There is an ongoing concerted effort to elucidate the molecular level behaviors of polymers in water by using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG). SFG stands out for its utility in probing buried interfaces in situ and in real time without disrupting interfacial chemistry. Included in this review are SFG water interfacial studies performed on poly(methacrylate) and (acrylate)s, poly(dimethyl siloxane)s, poly(ethylene glycol)s, poly(electrolyte)s and other polymer types. The driving forces behind common water/polymer interfacial molecular features will be discussed as well as unique molecular reorientation phenomena and resulting macroscopic behaviors from microscopic polymer rearrangement. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2013     

Visualizing The Future of Molecular Graphics

Abstract

The field of computer graphics has played an important role in the advancement of structural molecular biology and in the development of structure-based drug design. This article will provide a brief background on the development of this technology, and then focus on the current trends and future directions in molecular graphics and how they will impact the practice of molecular modeling and design. Specific areas that will be covered include: 1) the development of surface and volume based representations of molecular properties and interactions; 2) new approaches to modeling flexible and multi-component structures, and 3) the impact of object-oriented graphics-based programming and the rapidly growing use of network based computing.     

Functional and nonlinear optical metasurfaces

Optical metasurfaces are thin‐layer subwavelength‐patterned structures that interact strongly with light. Metasurfaces have become the subject of several rapidly growing areas of research, being a logical extension of the field of metamaterials towards their practical applications. Metasurfaces demonstrate many useful properties of metadevices with engineered resonant electric and magnetic optical responses combined with low losses of thin‐layer structures. Here we introduce the basic concepts of this rapidly growing research field that stem from earlier studies of frequency‐selective surfaces in radiophysics, being enriched by the recent development of metamaterials and subwavelength nanophotonics. We review the most interesting properties of photonic metasurfaces, demonstrating their useful functionalities such as frequency selectivity, wavefront shaping, polarization control, etc. We discuss the ways to achieve tunability of metasurfaces and also demonstrate that nonlinear effects can be enhanced with the help of metasurface engineering.

     

Initial attachment and spreading of MG63 cells on nanopatterned titanium surfaces via through-mask anodization

It is well established that nanosized surface topography significantly affects cell response at a biomaterial surface. Here we used a through-mask anodization technique to fabricate well-defined titania nanopillars with tunable feature sizes from 15 to 100 nm on bulk titanium (Ti) substrates and studied their effects on initial attachment and spreading of osteoblast-like cells (MG63). An increase of titania pillar height from 15 to 100 nm resulted in reduced spreading of MG63 osteoblast-like cells and the higher pillar structures also gave rise to heavily elongated cells. By using a FIB/SEM dual beam microscope the interface between MG63 cells and nanopatterned Ti surfaces could be studied in more detail. It was found that the higher pillar structures prevented the cells to conform to the surface topography leaving voids in between the cells and the substrates. The results found in this study agree with previous studies that cells response better to surfaces with smaller (<20 nm) features.     

Modular Assembly of Host–Guest Metal–Phenolic Networks Using Macrocyclic Building Blocks

The manipulation of interfacial properties has broad implications for the development of high‐performance coatings. Metal–phenolic networks (MPNs) are an emerging class of responsive, adherent materials. Herein, host–guest chemistry is integrated with MPNs to modulate their surface chemistry and interfacial properties. Macrocyclic cyclodextrins (host) are conjugated to catechol or galloyl groups and subsequently used as components for the assembly of functional MPNs. The assembled cyclodextrin‐based MPNs are highly permeable (even to high molecular weight polymers: 250–500 kDa), yet they specifically and noncovalently interact with various functional guests (including small molecules, polymers, and carbon nanomaterials), allowing for modular and reversible control over interfacial properties. Specifically, by using either hydrophobic or hydrophilic guest molecules, the wettability of the MPNs can be readily tuned between superrepellency (>150°) and superwetting (ca. 0°).     

Tubular surfaces of center curves on spacelike surfaces in Lorentz‐Minkowski 3‐space

In this paper, we introduce three kinds of tubular surfaces associated to original center curves γ lying in spacelike surfaces in Lorentz‐Minkowski 3‐space. It is demonstrated that these tubular surfaces can occur some singularities and the types of these singularities can be characterised by several invariants, respectively. Some interesting relations between the contacts of original curve γ with osculating model surfaces, the contacts of γ with slices, and the singularities of three kinds of surfaces are further revealed. Several examples are presented to explain the theoretical results.     

Computing arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian maps for evolving surfaces

The good mesh quality of a discretized closed evolving surface is often compromised during time evolution. In recent years this phenomenon has been theoretically addressed in a few ways, one of them uses arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) maps. However, the numerical computation of such maps still remained an unsolved problem in the literature. An approach, using differential algebraic problems, is proposed here to numerically compute an arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian map, which preserves the mesh properties over time. The ALE velocity is obtained by finding an equilibrium of a simple spring system, based on the connectivity of the nodes in the mesh. We also consider the algorithmic question of constructing acute surface meshes. We present various numerical experiments illustrating the good properties of the obtained meshes and the low computational cost of the proposed approach.