Characteristics of driven polymer surfaces: growth and roughness

Substrate adhesion of a nongrafted flexible polymer in a cavity

In a contact-density chain-growth study we investigate the solubility-temperature pseudophase diagram of a lattice polymer in a cavity with an attractive surface. In addition to the main phases of adsorbed and desorbed conformations we find numerous subphases of collapsed and expanded structures.

Conformational transitions of nongrafted polymers near an absorbing substrate

We have performed multi-canonical chain-growth simulations of a polymer interacting with an adsorbing surface. The polymer, which is not explicitly anchored at the surface, experiences a hierarchy of phase transitions between conformations binding and nonbinding with the substrate. We discuss the phase diagram in the temperature-solubility plane and highlight the transition path through the free-energy landscape.

Interface relaxation in electrophoretic deposition of polymer chains: effects of segmental dynamics, molecular weight, and field

Using different segmental dynamics and relaxation, characteristics of the interface growth is examined in an electrophoretic deposition of polymer chains on a three (2+1)-dimensional discrete lattice with a Monte Carlo simulation. Incorporation of faster modes such as crankshaft and reptation movements along with the relatively slow kink-jump dynamics seems crucial in relaxing the interface width. As the continuously released polymer chains are driven (via segmental movements) and deposited, the interface width W grows with the number of time steps t, W proportional, variant t(beta), (beta approximately 0.4-0.8), which is followed by its saturation to a steady-state value W(s). Stopping the release of additional chains after saturation while continuing the segmental movements relaxes the saturated width to an equilibrium value (W(s)-->W(r)). Scaling of the relaxed interface width W(r) with the driving field E, W(r) proportional, variant E(-1/2) remains similar to that of the steady-state W(s) width. In contrast to monotonic increase of the steady-state width W(s), the relaxed interface width W(r) is found to decay (possibly as a stretched exponential) with the molecular weight.