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Singh AN, Meena A, Nam KW. Gels in Motion: Recent Advancements in Energy Applications. Gels 2024; 10:122. [PMID: 38391452 PMCID: PMC10888500 DOI: 10.3390/gels10020122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Gels are attracting materials for energy storage technologies. The strategic development of hydrogels with enhanced physicochemical properties, such as superior mechanical strength, flexibility, and charge transport capabilities, introduces novel prospects for advancing next-generation batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors. Through a refined comprehension of gelation chemistry, researchers have achieved notable progress in fabricating hydrogels endowed with stimuli-responsive, self-healing, and highly stretchable characteristics. This mini-review delineates the integration of hydrogels into batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors, showcasing compelling instances that underscore the versatility of hydrogels, including tailorable architectures, conductive nanostructures, 3D frameworks, and multifunctionalities. The ongoing application of creative and combinatorial approaches in functional hydrogel design is poised to yield materials with immense potential within the domain of energy storage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aditya Narayan Singh
- Department of Energy and Materials Engineering, Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea
| | - Abhishek Meena
- Division of Physics and Semiconductor Science, Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea
| | - Kyung-Wan Nam
- Department of Energy and Materials Engineering, Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea
- Center for Next Generation Energy and Electronic Materials, Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea
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2
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Rafique M, Erbaş A. Mechanical deformation affects the counterion condensation in highly-swollen polyelectrolyte hydrogels. SOFT MATTER 2023; 19:7550-7561. [PMID: 37750366 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm00585b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/27/2023]
Abstract
Polyelectrolyte gels can generate electric potentials under mechanical deformation. While the underlying mechanism of such a response is often attributed to changes in counterion-condensation levels or alterations in the ionic conditions in the pervaded volume of the hydrogel, the exact molecular origins are largely unknown. By using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of a polyacrylic acid hydrogel in explicit water as a model system, we simulate the uniaxial compression and uniaxial stretching of weakly to highly swollen (i.e., between 60-90% solvent content) hydrogel networks and calculate the microscopic condensation levels of counterions around the hydrogel chains. The counterion condensation under deformation is highly non-monotonic. Ionic condensation around the constituting chains of the deformed hydrogel tends to increase as the chains are stretched. This increase reaches a maximum and decreases as the chains are strongly stretched. The condensation around the collapsed chains of the hydrogel is weakly affected by the deformation. As a result, both compressing and stretching the model hydrogel lead to an overall increase in the counterion condensation. The effect vanishes for weakly swollen hydrogels, for which most ions are already condensed. The simulations with single, stretched polyelectrolyte chains show a qualitatively similar response, suggesting the effect of chain elongation on the ionic distribution throughout the hydrogel. Notably, this deformation-induced counterion condensation phenomenon does not occur in a polyelectrolyte solution at its critical concentration, indicating the role of hydrogel topology constraining the chain ends. Our results indicate that counterion condensation in a deforming polyelectrolyte hydrogel can be highly heterogeneous and exhibit a rich behaviour of electrostatic responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muzaffar Rafique
- UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey.
| | - Aykut Erbaş
- UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey.
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3
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Chau AL, Getty PT, Rhode AR, Bates CM, Hawker CJ, Pitenis AA. Superlubricity of pH-responsive hydrogels in extreme environments. Front Chem 2022; 10:891519. [PMID: 36034669 PMCID: PMC9405656 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2022.891519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (P(AAm-co-AA)) hydrogels are highly tunable and pH-responsive materials frequently used in biomedical applications. The swelling behavior and mechanical properties of these gels have been extensively characterized and are thought to be controlled by the protonation state of the acrylic acid (AA) through the regulation of solution pH. However, their tribological properties have been underexplored. Here, we hypothesized that electrostatics and the protonation state of AA would drive the tribological properties of these polyelectrolyte gels. P(AAm-co-AA) hydrogels were prepared with constant acrylamide (AAm) concentration (33 wt%) and varying AA concentration to control the amount of ionizable groups in the gel. The monomer:crosslinker molar ratio (200:1) was kept constant. Hydrogel swelling, stiffness, and friction behavior were studied by systematically varying the acrylic acid (AA) concentration from 0–12 wt% and controlling solution pH (0.35, 7, 13.8) and ionic strength (I = 0 or 0.25 M). The stiffness and friction coefficient of bulk hydrogels were evaluated using a microtribometer and borosilicate glass probes as countersurfaces. The swelling behavior and elastic modulus of these polyelectrolyte hydrogels were highly sensitive to solution pH and poorly predicted the friction coefficient (µ), which decreased with increasing AA concentration. P(AAm-co-AA) hydrogels with the greatest AA concentrations (12 wt%) exhibited superlubricity (µ = 0.005 ± 0.001) when swollen in unbuffered, deionized water (pH = 7, I = 0 M) and 0.5 M NaOH (pH = 13.8, I = 0.25 M) (µ = 0.005 ± 0.002). Friction coefficients generally decreased with increasing AA and increasing solution pH. We postulate that tunable lubricity in P(AAm-co-AA) gels arises from changes in the protonation state of acrylic acid and electrostatic interactions between the probe and hydrogel surface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison L. Chau
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Patrick T. Getty
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Andrew R. Rhode
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Christopher M. Bates
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Craig J. Hawker
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Angela A. Pitenis
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
- *Correspondence: Angela A. Pitenis,
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4
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Milster S, Kim WK, Kanduč M, Dzubiella J. Tuning the permeability of regular polymeric networks by the cross-link ratio. J Chem Phys 2021; 154:154902. [PMID: 33887934 DOI: 10.1063/5.0045675] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The amount of cross-linking in the design of polymer materials is a key parameter for the modification of numerous physical properties, importantly, the permeability to molecular solutes. We consider networks with a diamond-like architecture and different cross-link ratios, concurring with a wide range of the polymer volume fraction. We particularly focus on the effect and the competition of two independent component-specific solute-polymer interactions, i.e., we distinguish between chain-monomers and cross-linkers, which individually act on the solutes and are altered to cover attractive and repulsive regimes. For this purpose, we employ coarse-grained, Langevin computer simulations to study how the cross-link ratio of polymer networks controls the solute partitioning, diffusion, and permeability. We observe different qualitative behaviors as a function of the cross-link ratio and interaction strengths. The permeability can be tuned ranging over two orders of magnitude relative to the reference bulk permeability. Finally, we provide scaling theories for the partitioning and diffusion that explicitly account for the component-specific interactions as well as the cross-link ratio and the polymer volume fraction. These are in overall good agreement with the simulation results and grant insight into the underlying physics, rationalizing how the cross-link ratio can be exploited to tune the solute permeability of polymeric networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Milster
- Applied Theoretical Physics-Computational Physics, Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Won Kyu Kim
- Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul 02455, Republic of Korea
| | - Matej Kanduč
- Jožef Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Joachim Dzubiella
- Applied Theoretical Physics-Computational Physics, Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany
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Kim WK, Chudoba R, Milster S, Roa R, Kanduč M, Dzubiella J. Tuning the selective permeability of polydisperse polymer networks. SOFT MATTER 2020; 16:8144-8154. [PMID: 32935731 DOI: 10.1039/d0sm01083a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
We study the permeability and selectivity ('permselectivity') of model membranes made of polydisperse polymer networks for molecular penetrant transport, using coarse-grained, implicit-solvent computer simulations. In our work, permeability P is determined on the linear-response level using the solution-diffusion model, P = KDin, i.e., by calculating the equilibrium penetrant partition ratio K and penetrant diffusivity Din inside the membrane. We vary two key parameters, namely the network-network interaction, which controls the degree of swelling and collapse of the network, and the network-penetrant interaction, which tunes the selective penetrant uptake and microscopic energy landscape for diffusive transport. We find that the partitioning K covers four orders of magnitude and is a non-monotonic function of the parameters, well interpreted by a second-order virial expansion of the free energy of transferring one penetrant from a reservoir into the membrane. Moreover, we find that the penetrant diffusivity Din in the polydisperse networks, in contrast to highly ordered membrane structures, exhibits relatively simple exponential decays. We propose a semi-empirical scaling law for the penetrant diffusion that describes the simulation data for a wide range of densities and interaction parameters. The resulting permeability P turns out to follow the qualitative behavior (including maximization and minimization) of partitioning. However, partitioning and diffusion are typically anti-correlated, yielding large quantitative cancellations, controlled and fine-tuned by the network density and interactions, as rationalized by our scaling laws. We finally demonstrate that even small changes of network-penetrant interactions, e.g., by half a kBT, modify the permselectivity by almost one order of magnitude.
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Affiliation(s)
- Won Kyu Kim
- Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul 02455, Republic of Korea.
| | - Richard Chudoba
- Research Group for Simulations of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, D-14109 Berlin, Germany and Division of Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden
| | - Sebastian Milster
- Research Group for Simulations of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, D-14109 Berlin, Germany and Applied Theoretical Physics-Computational Physics, Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Rafael Roa
- Departamento de Física Aplicada I, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, E-29071 Málaga, Spain
| | - Matej Kanduč
- JoŽef Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Joachim Dzubiella
- Research Group for Simulations of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, D-14109 Berlin, Germany and Applied Theoretical Physics-Computational Physics, Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany. and Cluster of Excellence livMatS @ FIT - Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, D-79110 Freiburg, Germany
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Frauenlob M, King DR, Guo H, Ishihara S, Tsuda M, Kurokawa T, Haga H, Tanaka S, Gong JP. Modulation and Characterization of the Double Network Hydrogel Surface-Bulk Transition. Macromolecules 2019. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b01399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel R. King
- Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan
| | - Honglei Guo
- Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan
| | - Seiichiro Ishihara
- Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan
| | - Masumi Tsuda
- Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan
- Department of Cancer Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Hokkaido University, N15W7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan
- Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD), Hokkaido University, N21W10, Kita-ku, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
| | - Takayuki Kurokawa
- Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan
| | - Hisashi Haga
- Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan
| | - Shinya Tanaka
- Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan
- Department of Cancer Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Hokkaido University, N15W7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan
- Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD), Hokkaido University, N21W10, Kita-ku, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
| | - Jian Ping Gong
- Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan
- Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD), Hokkaido University, N21W10, Kita-ku, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
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7
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Kim WK, Kanduč M, Roa R, Dzubiella J. Tuning the Permeability of Dense Membranes by Shaping Nanoscale Potentials. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2019; 122:108001. [PMID: 30932643 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.122.108001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2018] [Revised: 12/17/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Permeability is one of the most fundamental transport properties in soft matter physics, material engineering, and nanofluidics. Here, we report by means of Langevin simulations of ideal penetrants in a nanoscale membrane made of a fixed lattice of attractive interaction sites, how the permeability can be massively tuned, even minimized or maximized, by tailoring the potential energy landscape for the diffusing penetrants, depending on the membrane attraction, topology, and density. Supported by limiting scaling theories we demonstrate that the observed nonmonotonic behavior and the occurrence of extreme values of the permeability is far from trivial and triggered by a strong anticorrelation and substantial (orders of magnitude) cancellation between penetrant partitioning and diffusivity, especially within dense and highly attractive membranes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Won Kyu Kim
- Research Group for Simulations of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, D-14109 Berlin, Germany
| | - Matej Kanduč
- Research Group for Simulations of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, D-14109 Berlin, Germany
- Jožef Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Rafael Roa
- Física Aplicada I, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
| | - Joachim Dzubiella
- Research Group for Simulations of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, D-14109 Berlin, Germany
- Applied Theoretical Physics-Computational Physics, Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany
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Triandafilidi V, Hatzikiriakos SG, Rottler J. Molecular simulations of the piezoionic effect. SOFT MATTER 2018; 14:6222-6229. [PMID: 30022190 DOI: 10.1039/c8sm00939b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
We present a molecular dynamics study of two polyelectrolyte gels with different degrees of ionization coupled in a slab geometry. Our simulations show that a pressure gradient emerges between the two gels that results in the buildup of a Nernst-Donnan potential. This methodology is reverse to experiments of the piezoionic or mechanoelectric effect, in which an electric potential gradient appears upon application of a pressure gradient to a hydrogel. The Nernst-Donnan potential at the interface is found to scale linearly with temperature with the coefficient of proportionality given by the fraction of concentrations of the uncondensed counterions. We show that the potential difference can also be expressed as a linear function of the lateral pressure, thus providing a molecular interpretation of the piezoionic effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vasilii Triandafilidi
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
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9
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Tergolina VB, dos Santos AP. Effect of dielectric discontinuity on a spherical polyelectrolyte brush. J Chem Phys 2017; 147:114103. [DOI: 10.1063/1.5002526] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Vinicius B. Tergolina
- Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 15051, CEP 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Alexandre P. dos Santos
- Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 15051, CEP 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
- Fachbereich Physik, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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Roy T, Szuttor K, Smiatek J, Holm C, Hardt S. Electric-field-induced stretching of surface-tethered polyelectrolytes in a microchannel. Phys Rev E 2017; 96:032503. [PMID: 29346871 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.96.032503] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
We study the stretching of a surface-tethered polyelectrolyte confined between parallel surfaces under the application of a dc electric field. We explore the influence of the electric-field strength, the length of the polyelectrolyte, and the degree of confinement on the conformation of the polyelectrolyte by single-molecule experiments and coarse-grained coupled lattice-Boltzmann molecular-dynamics simulations. The fractional extension of the polyelectrolyte is found to be a universal function of the product of the applied electric field and the molecular contour length, which is explained by simple scaling arguments. The degree of confinement does not have any significant influence on the stretching. We also confirm that an electrohydrodynamic equivalence principle relating the stretching in an electric field to that in a flow field is applicable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamal Roy
- Institute for Nano- and Microfluidics, Technische Universität Darmstadt, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Kai Szuttor
- Institut für Computerphysik, Universität Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Jens Smiatek
- Institut für Computerphysik, Universität Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Christian Holm
- Institut für Computerphysik, Universität Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Steffen Hardt
- Institute for Nano- and Microfluidics, Technische Universität Darmstadt, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
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Kim WK, Moncho-Jordá A, Roa R, Kanduč M, Dzubiella J. Cosolute Partitioning in Polymer Networks: Effects of Flexibility and Volume Transitions. Macromolecules 2017. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.7b01206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Won Kyu Kim
- Institut
für Weiche Materie und Funktionale Materialien, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin, Germany
| | - Arturo Moncho-Jordá
- Departamento
de Física Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Avenida Fuente Nueva, 18071 Granada, Spain
- Instituto
Carlos I de Física Teórica y Computacional, Facultad
de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Avenida Fuente Nueva S/N, 18071 Granada, Spain
| | - Rafael Roa
- Institut
für Weiche Materie und Funktionale Materialien, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin, Germany
| | - Matej Kanduč
- Institut
für Weiche Materie und Funktionale Materialien, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin, Germany
| | - Joachim Dzubiella
- Institut
für Weiche Materie und Funktionale Materialien, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin, Germany
- Institut
für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstr.
15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
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