Title
Using surface-induced ordering to probe the isotropic-to-nematic transition for semiflexible polymers
Date Issued
01 January 2016
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Zhang W.
Milner S.
Pennsylvania State University
Publisher(s)
Royal Society of Chemistry
Abstract
Semiflexible polymers undergo a weakly first order isotropic-to-nematic (IN) phase transition when the volume fraction φ is high enough that random alignment of the backbone segments is no longer viable. For semiflexible chains, the critical volume fraction φc is governed by the backbone stiffness Np. To locate the IN phase transition, we perform molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of bead-spring chains confined between two impenetrable parallel surfaces. We use the impenetrable surfaces to induce nematic-isotropic interfaces for semiflexible chains in the isotropic phase. By progressively increasing the backbone stiffness Np, we observe the propagation of surface-induced nematic order above a critical stiffness Ncp for a given φ. Using the simulation results Ncp(φ), we construct the IN phase boundry in the φ-Np plane, from which the scaling relation between φc and Np is obtained. For semiflexible chains with Np ≤ 5.78, our results suggest φc ∼ Np-1, consistent with prediction by Khokhlov and Semenov. For chains with Np ≥ 5.78, we observe a new scaling regime in which φc ∼ Np-2/3.
Start page
6141
End page
6147
Volume
12
Issue
28
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería química Ingeniería química
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84978734672
Source
Soft Matter
ISSN of the container
1744683X
Sponsor(s)
The authors acknowledge financial support from NSF DMR-1507980.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus