Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 54, Number 2, April 2001
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 213 - 219 | |
Section | Condensed matter: structural, mechanical and thermal properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2001-00297-5 | |
Published online | 01 December 2003 |
Semiflexible equilibrium polymers: A self-assembling molecular model
1
Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics
Indian Institute of Science - Bangalore, 560012, India
2
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific
Research - Bangalore-560064, India
Corresponding authors: apratim@physics.iisc.ernet.in rahul@physics.iisc.ernet.in
Received:
22
September
2000
Accepted:
5
February
2001
We propose a continuum molecular model for self-assembling, semiflexible,
equilibrium polymers and study its statistical mechanics by Monte Carlo (MC)
simulations. If the temperature (T) is high, we find a disordered phase
in which the mean length of polymers is
small. A first-order transition separates it from a low-T
phase in which
is larger and the
semiflexible polymers are aligned enough to yield nematic
ordering. Disordered, glassy states can be obtained at low T; we
study these by an MC analogue of scanning calorimetry (Menon G. I., Pandit R. and Barma M.,
Europhys. Lett., 24 (1993) 253;
Menon G. I. and Pandit R., Phys. Rev. Lett., 75 (1995) 4638;
Phys. Rev. E, 59 (1999) 787).
We also use an MC method to study shear alignment of polymers
(Berret J. F., Roux D. C. and Porte G.,
J. Phys. II, 4 (1994) 1261;
Berret J. F., Roux D. C., Porte G. and Lindner P.,
Europhys. Lett., 25 (1994)521)
in our model).
PACS: 64.70.Md – Transitions in liquid crystals / 83.50.Ax – Steady shear flows, viscometric flow / 47.50.+d – Non-Newtonian fluid flows
© EDP Sciences, 2001
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.