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Simulation study on the conformational properties of an adsorbed polymer on a nanoparticle

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Abstract

The conformational properties of a polymer chain adsorbed on an attractive spherical nanoparticle are studied by using Monte Carlo simulations. The adsorption degree of polymer is described by the number of adsorbed monomers n a and the length of adsorbed block l a . The configuration of the adsorbed polymer on a nanoparticle is described by trains, loops, and tails. We find three different structures for the adsorbed polymer: a structure with trains, loops, and tails at small polymer-nanoparticle interaction strength ε pn , a structure with a train and a tail at large ε pn , and a structure with trains and loops at large n a . In addition, we find that the mean number of adsorbed monomers <n a  > is scaled with l a as <n a  > ~ l a α at ε pn  ≥ 1, and the exponent α increases with ε pn . Our results indicate that both the adsorption degree and the configuration of the adsorbed polymer are dependent on the polymer-nanoparticle interaction strength, the number of adsorbed monomers, and the length of adsorbed block.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. LY15A040009 and LQ14A040001 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 11374255 and 11474222. Computer simulations were carried out in the High Performance Computing Center of Hangzhou Normal University, College of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310036, China

    Chao-Yang Li

  2. Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Meng-Bo Luo

  3. Department of Physics, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, 325035, China

    Hong Li

  4. Department of Physics, Lishui University, Lishui, 323000, China

    Wei-Ping Cao

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  1. Chao-Yang Li
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  2. Meng-Bo Luo
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Correspondence to Chao-Yang Li.

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Li, CY., Luo, MB., Li, H. et al. Simulation study on the conformational properties of an adsorbed polymer on a nanoparticle. Colloid Polym Sci 295, 2251–2260 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-017-4201-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-017-4201-y

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