Amphiphilic copolymers under geometrical confinement
The confinement effects complicate significantly the polymer behavior, however they simultaneously provide opportunities to generate novel nanostructures useful for advanced applications such as nanocontainers or molecular templates. Detailed knowledge of the conformational behavior and self-assembly is necessary also for correct interpretation of separation techniques which employ slow flow of copolymer solutions through microporous media and assume the establishment of thermodynamic equilibria. In our recent studies, inspired by experiments of our collaborators we found that the interaction of copolymers with confining wall modifies the conformational behavior and has an important feedback effect on their sorption and separation.
The image is a snapshot of the simulation box which illustrates the separation of mixtures of linear and H-shaped polymers by Monte Carlo simulations. For more details see: Wang at al Polymer 104 (2016) 10-21.
Recently published studies
Pore size effect on the separation of polymers by interaction chromatography. A Monte Carlo study
Adsorption of amphiphilic graft copolymers in solvents selective for the grafts on a lyophobic surface: a coarse-grained simulation study
