Status:
Completed
Period
28 January – 28 February 2019
Applicant
Dr. Esmaeel Moghimi
Home Institution
IESL/FORTH, Heraklion, Greece
Host contact
Prof. Christos N. Likos
Host Institution
Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna
Aim of the mission
Telechelic Star Polymers (TSPs) are considered as a novel, promising model system with extremely tunable and versatile building blocks that have the ability to hierarchically self-assemble into soft patchy particles, which organize themselves into ordered structures. Inter-molecular associations offer a powerful way to form tunable topological constraints, hence mediate the structural organization and dynamic response of these systems. The aim of the visit was to build up a generic simulation toolbox in the group of Prof. Christos N. Likos in Vienna which is able to mimic the experimental system. The simulations is going to be used as the main tool to describe the experimental findings and explore the parameters space which are experimentally inaccessible.
Summary of the Results
The main aim of the collaborative work was to build a generic model which is able to mimic the experimental model system of telechelic star polymers (TSPs) in which the solvent is selective for both inner and outer blocks of the star arms. The model was applied and tested for a single TSP. The next plan will be to test the model system for concentrated solutions of TSPs to examine whether the simulations are able to capture the main experimental findings i. e. crystallization and reentrant behavior of TSPs on cooling.
Dissemination
1-E. Moghimi, I. Chubak, A. Statt, M. P. Howard, D. Founta, G. Polymeropoulos, N. Hadjichristidis, A. Z. Panagiotopoulos, C. N. Likos and D. Vlassopoulos, ‘’Self organization and flow of low-functionality telechelic star polymers with varying attraction’’, ACS Macro Letter, 8, 766-772, 2019.
2-E. Moghimi, I. Chubak, G. Polymeropoulos, N. Hadjichristidis, K. Mortensen, C. N. Likos and D. Vlassopoulos, ‘’Re-entrant gels from telechelic star polymers’’ in preparation for ACS Macro Letters.