Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userStiffness-guided motion of a droplet on a solid substrate
92
0
0.0
(
0
)
Added by
Panagiotis Theodorakis
Publication date
2017
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
A range of technologies require the directed motion of nanoscale droplets on solid substrates. A way of realizing this effect is durotaxis, whereby a stiffness gradient of a substrate can induce directional motion without requiring an energy source. Here, we report on the results of extensive molecular dynamics investigations of droplets on a surface with varying stiffness. We find that durotaxis is enhanced by increasing the stiffness gradient and, also, by increased wettability of the substrate, in particular, when droplet size decreases. We anticipate that our study will provide further insights into the mechanisms of nanoscale directional motion.
rate research
Read More
The effect of self-generated tension in the backbone of a bottle-brush (BB) macromolecule, adsorbed on an attractive surface, is studied by means of Molecular Dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model in the good solvent regime. The BB-molecule is modeled as a backbone chain of $L$ beads, connected by breakable bonds and with side chains, tethered pairwise to each monomer of the backbone. Our investigation is focused on several key questions that determine the bond scission mechanism and the ensuing degradation kinetics: how are frequency of bond scission and self-induced tension distributed along the BB-backbone at different grafting density $sigma_g$ of the side chains? How does tension $f$ depend on the length of the side chains $N$, and on the strength of surface adhesion $epsilon_s$? We examine the monomer density distribution profiles across the BB-backbone at different $epsilon_s$ and relate it to adsorption-induced morphological changes of the macromolecule whereby side chains partially desorb while the remaining chains spread better on the surface. Our simulation data are found to be in qualitative agreement with experimental results and recent theoretical predictions. Yet we demonstrate that the interval of parameter values where these predictions hold is limited in $N$. Thus, at high values of $epsilon_s$, too long side chains mutually block each other and freeze effectively the bottle-brush molecule.
When a drop of water is placed on a rough surface, there are two possible extreme regimes of wetting: the one called Cassie-Baxter (CB) with air pockets trapped underneath the droplet and the one characterized by the homogeneous wetting of the surface, called the Wenzel (W) state. A way to investigate the transition between these two states is by means of evaporation experiments, in which the droplet starts in a CB state and, as its volume decreases, penetrates the surfaces grooves, reaching a W state. Here we present a theoretical model based on the global interfacial energies for CB and W states that allows us to predict the thermodynamic wetting state of the droplet for a given volume and surface texture. We first analyze the influence of the surface geometric parameters on the droplets final wetting state with constant volume, and show that it depends strongly on the surface texture. We then vary the volume of the droplet keeping fixed the geometric surface parameters to mimic evaporation and show that the drop experiences a transition from the CB to the W state when its volume reduces, as observed in experiments. To investigate the dependency of the wetting state on the initial state of the droplet, we implement a cellular Potts model in three dimensions. Simulations show a very good agreement with theory when the initial state is W, but it disagrees when the droplet is initialized in a CB state, in accordance with previous observations which show that the CB state is metastable in many cases. Both simulations and theoretical model can be modified to study other types of surface.
Solid-solid collapse transition in open framework structures is ubiquitous in nature. The real difficulty in understanding detailed microscopic aspects of such transitions in molecular systems arises from the interplay between different energy and length scales involved in molecular systems, often mediated through a solvent. In this work we employ Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to study the collapse transition in a model molecular system interacting via both isotropic as well as anisotropic interactions having different length and energy scales. The model we use is known as Mercedes-Benz (MB) which for a specific set of parameters sustains three solid phases: honeycomb, oblique and triangular. In order to study the temperature induced collapse transition, we start with a metastable honeycomb solid and induce transition by heating. High density oblique solid so formed has two characteristic length scales corresponding to isotropic and anisotropic parts of interaction potential. Contrary to the common believe and classical nucleation theory, interestingly, we find linear strip-like nucleating clusters having significantly different order and average coordination number than the bulk stable phase. In the early stage of growth, the cluster grows as linear strip followed by branched and ring-like strips. The geometry of growing cluster is a consequence of the delicate balance between two types of interactions which enables the dominance of stabilizing energy over the destabilizing surface energy. The nuclei of stable oblique phase are wetted by intermediate order particles which minimizes the surface free energy. We observe different pathways for pressure and temperature induced transitions.
According to a recent proposal [S. Takayama et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 061107 (2005)], the triangular lattice of triangular air holes may allow to achieve a complete photonic band gap in two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs. In this work we present a systematic theoretical study of this photonic lattice in a high-index membrane, and a comparison with the conventional triangular lattice of circular holes, by means of the guided-mode expansion method whose detailed formulation is described here. Photonic mode dispersion below and above the light line, gap maps, and intrinsic diffraction losses of quasi-guided modes are calculated for the periodic lattice as well as for line- and point-defects defined therein. The main results are summarized as follows: (i) the triangular lattice of triangular holes does indeed have a complete photonic band gap for the fundamental guided mode, but the useful region is generally limited by the presence of second-order waveguide modes; (ii) the lattice may support the usual photonic band gap for even modes (quasi-TE polarization) and several band gaps for odd modes (quasi-TM polarization), which could be tuned in order to achieve doubly-resonant frequency conversion between an even mode at the fundamental frequency and an odd mode at the second-harmonic frequency; (iii) diffraction losses of quasi-guided modes in the triangular lattices with circular and triangular holes, and in line-defect waveguides or point-defect cavities based on these geometries, are comparable. The results point to the interest of the triangular lattice of triangular holes for nonlinear optics, and show the usefulness of the guided-mode expansion method for calculating photonic band dispersion and diffraction losses, especially for higher-lying photonic modes.
We demonstrate that irreversible structural reorganization is not necessary for the observation of yield behaviour in an amorphous solid. While the majority of solids strained to their yield point do indeed undergo an irreversible reorganization, we find a significant fraction of solids exhibit yield via a reversible strain. We also demonstrate that large instantaneous strains in excess of the yield stress can result in complete stress relaxation, a result of the large non-affine motions driven by the applied strain. The empirical similarity of the dependence of the ratio of stress over strain on the non-affine mean squared displacement with that for the shear modulus obtained from quiescent liquid at non-zero temperature supports the proposition that rigidity depends on the size of the sampled configurational space only, and is insensitive as to how this space is sampled.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
