2 research outputs found

    Temporally Anticorrelated Motion of Nanoparticles at a Liquid Interface

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    Quantum dots at the hexane–glycerol interface exhibited unexpected behavior including highly dynamic adsorption/desorption, where the lateral nanoparticle motion was anomalously fast immediately after adsorption and prior to desorption. At the interface, particles exhibited pseudo-Brownian lateral motion, in which the instantaneous diffusion coefficient was temporally anticorrelated, in agreement with our simulations involving fractional Brownian motion in the surface-normal direction. These phenomena suggest that, in contrast to the conventional picture for colloidal particles, nanoparticles explore a landscape of metastable interfacial positions, with different exposures to the two adjacent phases

    Scaling Behavior and Segment Concentration Profile of Densely Grafted Polymer Brushes Swollen in Vapor

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    The scaling of the thickness, <i>h</i><sub>s</sub>, of a densely grafted polymer brush of chain length <i>N</i> and grafting density σ swollen in vapor agrees quantitatively with the scaling reported by Kuhl et al. for densely grafted brushes swollen in liquid. Deep in the brush, next to the substrate, the shape of the segment concentration profile is the same whether the brush is swollen by liquid or by vapor. Differences in the segment concentration profile are manifested primarily in the swollen brush interface with the surrounding fluid. The interface of the polymer brush swollen in vapor is much more abrupt than that of the same brush swollen in liquid. This has implications for the compressibility of the swollen brush surface and for fluctuations at that surface
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