Dynamics of Droplets Moving on Lubricated Polymer Brushes.

Understanding the dynamics of drops on polymer-coated surfaces is crucial for optimizing applications such as self-cleaning materials or microfluidic devices. While the static and dynamic properties of deposited drops have been well characterized, a microscopic understanding of the underlying dynamics is missing. In particular, it is unclear how drop dynamics depends on the amount of uncross-linked chains in the brush, because experimental techniques fail to quantify those. Here we use coarse-grained simulations to study droplets moving on a lubricated polymer brush substrate under the influence of an external body force. The simulation model is based on the many body dissipative particle dynamics (MDPD) method and designed to mimic a system of water droplets on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) brushes with chemically identical PDMS lubricant. In agreement with experiments, we find a sublinear power law dependence between the external force F and the droplet velocity v, F ∝ vα with α < 1; however, the exponents differ (α ∼ 0.6-0.7 in simulations versus α ∼ 0.25 in experiments). With increasing velocity, the droplets elongate and the receding contact angle decreases, whereas the advancing contact angle remains roughly constant. Analyzing the flow profiles inside the droplet reveals that the droplets do not slide but roll, with vanishing slip at the substrate surface. Surprisingly, adding lubricant has very little effect on the effective friction force between the droplet and the substrate, even though it has a pronounced effect on the size and structure of the wetting ridge, especially above the cloaking transition.

Force renormalization for probes immersed in an active bath.

Langevin equations or generalized Langevin equations (GLEs) are popular models for describing the motion of a particle in a fluid medium in an effective manner. Here we examine particles immersed in an inherently nonequilibrium fluid, i.e., an active bath, which are subject to an external force. Specifically, we consider two types of forces that are highly relevant for microrheological studies: A harmonic, trapping force and a constant, "drag" force. We study such systems by molecular simulations and use the simulation data to extract an effective GLE description. We find that within this description, in an active bath, the external force in the GLE is not equal to the physical external force, but rather a renormalized external force, which can be significantly smaller. The effect cannot be attributed to the mere temperature renormalization, which is also observed.

Phase separation dynamics in wetting ridges of polymer surfaces swollen with oils of different viscosities.

When drops are placed on a sufficiently soft surface, the drop surface tension drives an out of plane deformation around the contact line (i.e., a wetting ridge). For soft elastomeric surfaces that are swollen with a liquid, capillarity from a drop can induce a phase separation in the wetting ridge. Using confocal microscopy, we study the dynamics of phase separation at the wetting ridge of glycerol drops on silicone elastomers, which are swollen with silicone oils of varying viscosity (i.e., molecular weight). We show that the viscosity of the swelling oil plays a large role in the oil separation size and separation rate. For networks swollen to near their maximum swelling (i.e., saturated), lower viscosity oil separates more and separates faster at early times compared to larger viscosity oil. During late-stage wetting, the growth rate of the separation is a function of viscosity and swelling ratio, which can be described by a simple diffusive model and a defined wetting ridge geometry. In this late-stage wetting, the higher viscosity oil evidently grows faster, likely because it is further from reaching equilibrium. Interestingly, the separated oil phase region grows with a nearly constant, geometrically similar shape. Understanding how phase separation occurs on swollen substrates should provide information on how to control drop spreading, sliding, adhesion, or friction on such surfaces.

Atomistic Molecular Dynamics Simulations of ABA-Type Polymer Peptide Conjugates: Insights into Supramolecular Structures and their Circular Dichroism Spectra.

A combination of atomistic molecular dynamics (aMD) simulations and circular dichroism (CD) analysis is used to explore supramolecular structures of amphiphilic ABA-type triblock polymer peptide conjugates (PPC). Using the example of a recently introduced PPC with pH- and temperature responsive self-assembling behavior [Otter et al., Macromolecular Rapid Communications 2018, 39, 1800459], this study shows how molecular dynamics simulations of simplified fragment molecules can add crucial information to CD data, which helps to correctly identify the self-assembled structures and monitor the folding/unfolding pathways of the molecules. The findings offer insights into the nature of structural transitions induced by external stimuli, thus contributing to the understanding of the connection of microscopic structures with macroscopic properties.

Strong stretching theory of polydisperse curved polymer brushes.

We investigate the effect of polydispersity on the properties of curved linear brushes in good solvent and for molten brushes. To this end, we extend the strong stretching theory for polydisperse brushes to curved geometries and investigate the polymer chain end profiles, bending moduli and other properties for experimentally relevant polymer chain length distributions of the Schulz-Zimm type. We also investigate the properties of end exclusion zones that may appear in convex geometries under certain conditions and show that their position in the brush can be engineered by careful selection of the polymer length distribution. Finally, we propose a method to engineer chain end profiles by engineering the polymer length distribution.

Stability of Branched Tubular Membrane Structures.

We study the energetics and stability of branched tubular membrane structures by computer simulations of a triangulated network model. We find that triple (Y) junctions can be created and stabilized by applying mechanical forces, if the angle between branches is 120°. The same holds for tetrahedral junctions with tetraeder angles. If the wrong angles are enforced, the branches coalesce to a linear structure, a pure tube. After releasing the mechanical force, Y-branched structures remain metastable if one constrains the enclosed volume and the average curvature (the area difference) to a fixed value; tetrahedral junctions however split up into two Y junctions. Somewhat counterintuitively, the energy cost of adding a Y branch is negative in structures with fixed surface area and tube diameter, even if one accounts for the positive contribution of the additional branch end. For fixed average curvature, however, adding a branch also enforces a thinning of tubes, therefore the overall curvature energy cost is positive. Possible implications for the stability of branched networks structures in cells are discussed.

Compression and interpenetration of adsorption-active brushes.

Compression and interpenetration of two opposing polymer brushes formed by end-grafted adsorption-active chains are studied by the numerical self-consistent field approach and by analytical theory. For sufficiently strong polymer-surface attraction, a fraction of chains in the adsorption-active brush condenses into a near-surface layer, while the remaining ones form the outer brush with reduced effective grafting density. Analysis shows that the normal pressure in adsorption-active brushes can be understood in terms of the effective grafting density concept although the pressure at small separations is affected by the presence of the dense adsorbed phase. We propose a simple theory modification that accounts for this effect. We also formulate a procedure for extracting the value of the effective grafting density directly from the pressure vs separation curves by inverting the equation of state. In contrast to the normal pressure, the interpenetration of the two opposing adsorption-active brushes demonstrates a much more intricate behavior. At weak to moderate compressions, the effective grafting density concept works well but fails spectacularly at small interbrush separations. We identify two interpenetration regimes for adsorption-active brushes: (i) at separations larger than the ideal Gaussian coil size N1/2, the overlap of the two brushes is concentrated in the mid-plane region, in the same way as in brushes grafted onto non-attractive surfaces; (ii) at separations less than N1/2, the brush overlap is strongly enhanced in the wall regions where the attractive interaction plays an important role both in generating the dense layer for the "proper" brush and in attracting the "foreign" chains.

Passive probe particle in an active bath: can we tell it is out of equilibrium?

We study a passive probe immersed in a fluid of active particles. Despite the system's non-equilibrium nature, the trajectory of the probe does not exhibit non-equilibrium signatures: its velocity distribution remains Gaussian, the second fluctuation dissipation theorem is not fundamentally violated, and the motion does not indicate breaking of time reversal symmetry. To tell that the probe is out of equilibrium requires examination of its behavior in tandem with that of the active fluid: the kinetic temperature of the probe does not equilibrate to that of the surrounding active particles. As a strategy to diagnose non-equilibrium from probe trajectories alone, we propose to examine their response to a small perturbation which reveals a non-equilibrium signature through a violation of the first fluctuation dissipation theorem.

pH-Dependent Behavior of Ionizable Cationic Lipids in mRNA-Carrying Lipoplexes Investigated by Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Lipid-based nanoparticles and lipoplexes containing ionizable lipids are among the most successful nanocarriers for mRNA-based therapies. The molecular structure of these assemblies is still not fully understood, as well as the role played by the ionizable lipids. SAXS experiments have shown that lipoplexes including the ionizable lipid 2-dioleyloxy-N,N-dimethyl-3-aminopropane (DODMA), under specific conditions, have a lamellar structure, where lipid bilayers are separated by mRNA-rich layers, with an overall spacing between 6.5 and 8.0 nm and a complex pH-dependence. Here, the structure and dynamics of these lipoplexes are investigated at varying pH and mRNA concentration using multiscale molecular dynamics simulations. It is observed that the interaction between DODMA and RNA is slightly attractive only at low pH levels, while it becomes effectively repulsive at high and intermediate pH. This results into a pH-dependent relocation of the RNA inside the multilayers, from the lipid head groups at low pH to a more uniform distribution inside the hydrophilic slabs of the multilayers at high pH. It is also observed that at high pH, DODMA lipids shift toward the hydrophobic part of the bilayer, consequently increasing their leaflet-flipping rate, a phenomenon which may ultimately affect the fusion process of the lipoplex with the endosomal membrane.

Adsorption-active polydisperse brush with tunable molecular mass distribution.

Recently, a novel class of responsive uncharged polymer brushes has been proposed [Klushin et al., J. Chem. Phys. 154(7), 074904 (2021)] where the brush-forming chains have an affinity to the substrate. For sufficiently strong surface interactions, a fraction of chains condenses into a near-surface layer, while the remaining ones form the outer brush with a reduced grafting density. The dense layer and the more tenuous outer brush can be seen as coexisting microphases. The effective grafting density of the outer brush is controlled by the adsorption strength and can be changed reversibly as a response to changes in environmental parameters. In this paper, we use numerical self-consistent field calculations to study this phenomenon in polydisperse brushes. Our results reveal an unexpected effect: Although all chains are chemically identical, shorter chains are adsorbed preferentially. Hence, with the increase in the surface affinity parameter, a reduction in the surface grafting density of the residual brush is accompanied by a change in the shape of its molecular mass distribution (MMD). In particular, an originally bidisperse brush can be effectively transformed into a nearly monodisperse one containing only the longer chain fraction. We introduce a method of assigning different chain conformations to one or the other microphase, based on analyzing tail length distributions. In a polydisperse brush with a uniform MMD, short chains are relegated to the adsorbed phase, leading to a narrower effective MMD in the residual brush. Preferential adsorption is not absolute, and longer chains are also partially involved in adsorption. As a result, not only the width of the distribution decreases but also its shape evolves away from the initial uniform distribution. We believe that the effect of preferential adsorption stems from a fundamental property of a polydisperse brush, which is characterized by a spectrum of chemical potential values for monomers belonging to chains of different lengths. Hence, preferential adsorption is also expected in polyelectrolyte brushes; moreover, brush polydispersity would affect coexistence with any other condensed phase, not necessarily related to adsorption.

Fluctuation-dissipation relations far from equilibrium: a case study.

Fluctuation-dissipation relations or "theorems" (FDTs) are fundamental for statistical physics and can be rigorously derived for equilibrium systems. Their applicability to non-equilibrium systems is, however, debated. Here, we simulate an active microrheology experiment, in which a spherical colloid is pulled with a constant external force through a fluid, creating near-equilibrium and far-from-equilibrium systems. We characterize the structural and dynamical properties of these systems, and reconstruct an effective generalized Langevin equation (GLE) for the colloid dynamics. Specifically, we test the validity of two FDTs: The first FDT relates the non-equilibrium response of a system to equilibrium correlation functions, and the second FDT relates the memory friction kernel in the GLE to the stochastic force. We find that the validity of the first FDT depends strongly on the strength of the external driving: it is fulfilled close to equilibrium and breaks down far from it. In contrast, we observe that the second FDT is always fulfilled. We provide a mathematical argument why this generally holds for memory kernels reconstructed from a deterministic Volterra equation for correlation functions, even for non-stationary non-equilibrium systems. Motivated by the Mori-Zwanzig formalism, we therefore suggest to impose an orthogonality constraint on the stochastic force, which is in fact equivalent to the validity of this Volterra equation. Such GLEs automatically satisfy the second FDT and are unique, which is desirable when using GLEs for coarse-grained modeling.

Polymer brushes with reversibly tunable grafting density.

We propose a novel class of responsive polymer brushes, where the effective grafting density can be controlled by external stimuli. This is achieved by using end-grafted polymer chains that have an affinity to the substrate. For sufficiently strong surface interactions, a fraction of chains condenses into a near-surface layer, while the remaining ones form the outer brush. The dense layer and the more tenuous outer brush can be seen as coexisting microphases. The effective grafting density of the outer brush is controlled by the adsorption strength and can be changed reversibly and in a controlled way as a response to changes in environmental parameters. The effect is demonstrated by numerical self-consistent field calculations and analyzed by scaling arguments. Since the thickness of the denser layer is about a few monomer sizes, its capacity to form a microphase is limited by the product of the brush chain length and the grafting density. We explore the range of chain lengths and grafting densities where the effect is most pronounced. In this range, the SCF studies suggest that individual chains inside the brush show large rapid fluctuations between two states that are separated by only a small free energy barrier. The behavior of the brush as a whole, however, does not reflect these large fluctuations, and the effective grafting density varies smoothly as a function of the control parameters.

Defects and defect engineering in Soft Matter.

Soft matter covers a wide range of materials based on linear or branched polymers, gels and rubbers, amphiphilic (macro)molecules, colloids, and self-assembled structures. These materials have applications in various industries, all highly important for our daily life, and they control all biological functions; therefore, controlling and tailoring their properties is crucial. One way to approach this target is defect engineering, which aims to control defects in the material's structure, and/or to purposely add defects into it to trigger specific functions. While this approach has been a striking success story in crystalline inorganic hard matter, both for mechanical and electronic properties, and has also been applied to organic hard materials, defect engineering is rarely used in soft matter design. In this review, we present a survey on investigations on defects and/or defect engineering in nine classes of soft matter composed of liquid crystals, colloids, linear polymers with moderate degree of branching, hyperbranched polymers and dendrimers, conjugated polymers, polymeric networks, self-assembled amphiphiles and proteins, block copolymers and supramolecular polymers. This overview proposes a promising role of this approach for tuning the properties of soft matter.

Anomalous Slowdown of Polymer Detachment Dynamics on Carbon Nanotubes.

The "wrapping" of polymer chains on the surface of carbon nanotubes allows one to obtain multifunctional hybrid materials with unique properties for a wide range of applications in biomedicine, electronics, nanocomposites, biosensors, and solar cell technologies. We study by means of molecular dynamics simulations the force-assisted desorption kinetics of a polymer from the surface of a carbon nanotube. We find that, due to the geometric coupling between the adsorbing surface and the conformation of the macromolecule, the process of desorption slows down dramatically upon increasing the windings around the nanotube. This behavior can be rationalized in terms of an overdamped dynamics with a frictional force that increases exponentially with the number of windings of the macromolecule, resembling the Euler-Eytelwein mechanism that describes the interplay between applied tension and frictional forces on a rope wrapped around a curved surface. The results highlight the fundamental role played by the geometry to control the dynamics and mechanical stability of hybrid materials in order to tailor properties and maximize performance.

Structure of lateral heterogeneities in a coarse-grained model for multicomponent membranes.

We study the lateral domain structure in a coarse-grained molecular model for multicomponent lipid bilayers by semi-grandcanonical Monte Carlo simulations. The membranes are filled with liquid ordered (lo) domains surrounded by a liquid disordered (ld) matrix. Depending on the membrane composition and temperature, we identify different morphological regimes: one regime (I) where the lo domains are small and relatively compact, and two regimes (II, II') where they are larger and often interconnected. In the latter two regimes, the ld matrix forms a network of disordered trenches separating the lo domains, with a relatively high content of interdigitated line defects. Since such defects are also a structural element of the modulated ripple phase in one component membranes, we argue that the regimes II, II' may be amorphous equivalents of the ripple phase in multicomponent membranes. We also analyze the local structure and provide evidence that the domains in regime I are stabilized by a monolayer curvature mechanism postulated in earlier work [S. Meinhardt et al., PNAS, 2013, 110, 4476].

Curvature as a Guiding Field for Patterns in Thin Block Copolymer Films.

Experimental data on thin films of cylinder-forming block copolymers (BC)-free-standing BC membranes as well as supported BC films-strongly suggest that the local orientation of the BC patterns is coupled to the geometry in which the patterns are embedded. We analyze this phenomenon using general symmetry considerations and numerical self-consistent field studies of curved BC films in cylindrical geometry. The stability of the films against curvature-induced dewetting is also analyzed. In good agreement with experiments, we find that the BC cylinders tend to align along the direction of curvature at high curvatures. At low curvatures, we identify a transition from perpendicular to parallel alignment in supported films, which is absent in free-standing membranes. Hence both experiments and theory show that curvature can be used to manipulate and align BC patterns.

Generalized Langevin dynamics: construction and numerical integration of non-Markovian particle-based models.

We propose a generalized Langevin dynamics (GLD) technique to construct non-Markovian particle-based coarse-grained models from fine-grained reference simulations and to efficiently integrate them. The proposed GLD model has the form of a discretized generalized Langevin equation with distance-dependent two-particle contributions to the self- and pair-memory kernels. The memory kernels are iteratively reconstructed from the dynamical correlation functions of an underlying fine-grained system. We develop a simulation algorithm for this class of non-Markovian models that scales linearly with the number of coarse-grained particles. Our GLD method is suitable for coarse-grained studies of systems with incomplete time scale separation, as is often encountered, e.g., in soft matter systems. We apply the method to a suspension of nanocolloids with frequency-dependent hydrodynamic interactions. We show that the results from GLD simulations perfectly reproduce the dynamics of the underlying fine-grained system. The effective speedup of these simulations amounts to a factor of about 104. Additionally, the transferability of the coarse-grained model with respect to changes of the nanocolloid density is investigated. The results indicate that the model is transferable to systems with nanocolloid densities that differ by up to one order of magnitude from the density of the reference system.

Correction: Generalized Langevin dynamics: construction and numerical integration of non-Markovian particle-based models.

Correction for 'Generalized Langevin dynamics: construction and numerical integration of non-Markovian particle-based models' by Gerhard Jung et al., Soft Matter, 2018, DOI: 10.1039/c8sm01817k.

Phase transitions in single macromolecules: Loop-stretch transition versus loop adsorption transition in end-grafted polymer chains.

We use Brownian dynamics simulations and analytical theory to compare two prominent types of single molecule transitions. One is the adsorption transition of a loop (a chain with two ends bound to an attractive substrate) driven by an attraction parameter ε and the other is the loop-stretch transition in a chain with one end attached to a repulsive substrate, driven by an external end-force F applied to the free end. Specifically, we compare the behavior of the respective order parameters of the transitions, i.e., the mean number of surface contacts in the case of the adsorption transition and the mean position of the chain end in the case of the loop-stretch transition. Close to the transition points, both the static behavior and the dynamic behavior of chains with different length N are very well described by a scaling ansatz with the scaling parameters (ε - ε*)Nϕ (adsorption transition) and (F - F*)Nν (loop-stretch transition), respectively, where ϕ is the crossover exponent of the adsorption transition and ν is the Flory exponent. We show that both the loop-stretch and the loop adsorption transitions provide an exceptional opportunity to construct explicit analytical expressions for the crossover functions which perfectly describe all simulation results on static properties in the finite-size scaling regime. Explicit crossover functions are based on the ansatz for the analytical form of the order parameter distributions at the respective transition points. In contrast to the close similarity in equilibrium static behavior, the dynamic relaxation at the two transitions shows qualitative differences, especially in the strongly ordered regimes. This is attributed to the fact that the surface contact dynamics in a strongly adsorbed chain is governed by local processes, whereas the end height relaxation of a strongly stretched chain involves the full spectrum of Rouse modes.