Polymer droplets on top of a brush of chemically identical molecules: Autophobic dewetting and motion of droplets under external force on a soft substrate

MÜLLER, M.; PASTORINO, C.; KREER, T.; BINDER, K.; MACDOWELL, L. G.

Atlanta

Congreso; ACS Meeting; 2006

American Chemical Society

Brushes and rubber networks are soft, elastically deformablesubstrates giving rise to a rich wetting behavior and additionalmolecular dissipation mechanisms for the motion of droplets. Theproperties of the substrate can be controlled by varying the graftingdensity or molecular weight without altering the segmental interactions.The behavior is dictated by universal entropic effects which areindependent of the chemical structure. We investigate a short-chainpolymer liquid on top of a brush of identical molecules in equilibrium andunder shear via Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and Non-EquilibriumMolecular Dynamics (NEMD) simulations using a dissipative particledynamics (DPD) thermostat. Short polymers that are comprised of N=10effective segments are modeled via a coarse-grained bead-springmodel  under bad solvent conditions.