1,377 research outputs found
Single chain properties of polyelectrolytes in poor solvent
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the behavior of a dilute
solution of strongly charged polyelectrolytes in poor solvents, where we take
counterions explicitly into account. We focus on the chain conformational
properties under conditions where chain-chain interactions can be neglected,
but the counterion concentration remains finite. We investigate the
conformations with regard to the parameters chain length, Coulomb interaction
strength, and solvent quality, and explore in which regime the competition
between short range hydrophobic interactions and long range Coulomb
interactions leads to pearl-necklace like structures. We observe that large
number and size fluctuations in the pearls and strings lead to only small
direct signatures in experimental observables like the single chain form
factor. Furthermore we do not observe the predicted first order collapse of the
necklace into a globular structure when counterion condensation sets in. We
will also show that the pearl-necklace regime is rather small for strongly
charged polyelectrolytes at finite densities. Even small changes in the charge
fraction of the chain can have a large impact on the conformation due to the
delicate interplay between counterion distribution and chain conformation.Comment: 20 pages, 27 figures, needs jpc.sty (included), to appear in Jour.
Phys. Chem
Results of detailed thermal analysis of the Dust Detector
This ATM presents the results of a detailed thermal analysis of the Dust Detector. The preliminary analysis presented in ATM-482 recommended that the electronics be housed in the Central Station. Therefore, this analysis predicts only the temperature of the photocells, thermistors and their housing.prepared by R. H. Limbach ; approved by H. Collicott
Structure of Polyelectrolytes in Poor Solvent
We present simulations on charged polymers in poor solvent. First we
investigate in detail the dilute concentration range with and without imposed
extension constraints. The resulting necklace polymer conformations are
analyzed in detail. We find strong fluctuations in the number of pearls and
their sizes leading only to small signatures in the form factor and the
force-extension relation. The scaling of the peak in the structure factor with
the monomer density shows a pertinent different behavior from good solvent
chains.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. submitted to EP
Detection, tracking and event localization of jet stream features in 4-D atmospheric data
We introduce a novel algorithm for the efficient detection and tracking of features in spatiotemporal atmospheric data, as well as for the precise localization of the occurring genesis, lysis, merging and splitting events. The algorithm works on data given on a four-dimensional structured grid. Feature selection and clustering are based on adjustable local and global criteria, feature tracking is predominantly based on spatial overlaps of the feature's full volumes. The resulting 3-D features and the identified correspondences between features of consecutive time steps are represented as the nodes and edges of a directed acyclic graph, the event graph. Merging and splitting events appear in the event graph as nodes with multiple incoming or outgoing edges, respectively. The precise localization of the splitting events is based on a search for all grid points inside the initial 3-D feature that have a similar distance to two successive 3-D features of the next time step. The merging event is localized analogously, operating backward in time. As a first application of our method we present a climatology of upper-tropospheric jet streams and their events, based on four-dimensional wind speed data from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analyses. We compare our results with a climatology from a previous study, investigate the statistical distribution of the merging and splitting events, and illustrate the meteorological significance of the jet splitting events with a case study. A brief outlook is given on additional potential applications of the 4-D data segmentation technique
Finite Size Polyelectrolyte Bundles at Thermodynamic Equilibrium
We present the results of extensive computer simulations performed on
solutions of monodisperse charged rod-like polyelectrolytes in the presence of
trivalent counterions. To overcome energy barriers we used a combination of
parallel tempering and hybrid Monte Carlo techniques. Our results show that for
small values of the electrostatic interaction the solution mostly consists of
dispersed single rods. The potential of mean force between the polyelectrolyte
monomers yields an attractive interaction at short distances. For a range of
larger values of the Bjerrum length, we find finite size polyelectrolyte
bundles at thermodynamic equilibrium. Further increase of the Bjerrum length
eventually leads to phase separation and precipitation. We discuss the origin
of the observed thermodynamic stability of the finite size aggregates
Polyelectrolyte Bundles
Using extensive Molecular Dynamics simulations we study the behavior of
polyelectrolytes with hydrophobic side chains, which are known to form
cylindrical micelles in aqueous solution. We investigate the stability of such
bundles with respect to hydrophobicity, the strength of the electrostatic
interaction, and the bundle size. We show that for the parameter range relevant
for sulfonated poly-para-phenylenes (PPP) one finds a stable finite bundle
size. In a more generic model we also show the influence of the length of the
precursor oligomer on the stability of the bundles. We also point out that our
model has close similarities to DNA solutions with added condensing agents,
hinting to the possibility that the size of DNA aggregates is under certain
circumstances thermodynamically limited.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
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The influence of Mg doping on the nucleation of self-induced GaN nanowires
GaN nanowires were grown without any catalyst by plasma-assisted molecular beam
epitaxy. Under supply of Mg, nanowire nucleation is faster, the areal density of
wires increases to a higher value, and nanowire coalescence is more pronounced
than without Mg. During nanowire nucleation the Ga desorption was monitored insitu
by line-of-sight quadrupolemass spectrometry for various substrate temperatures.
Nucleation energies of 4.0±0.3 eV and 3.2±0.3 eV without and with Mg supply were
deduced, respectively. This effect has to be taken into account for the fabrication of
nanowire devices and could be employed to tune the NW areal density
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Semiflexible Polyampholyte Brushes - The Effect of Charged Monomers Sequence
Planar brushes formed by end-grafted semiflexible polyampholyte chains, each
chain containing equal number of positively and negatively charged monomers is
studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Keeping the length of the chains
fixed, dependence of the average brush thickness and equilibrium statistics of
the brush conformations on the grafting density and the salt concentration are
obtained with various sequences of charged monomers. When similarly charged
monomers of the chains are arranged in longer blocks, the average brush
thickness is smaller and dependence of brush properties on the grafting density
and the salt concentration is stronger. With such long blocks of similarly
charged monomers, the anchored chains bond to each other in the vicinity of the
grafting surface at low grafting densities and buckle toward the grafting
surface at high grafting densities.Comment: 8 pages,7 figure
Correlation length of hydrophobic polyelectrolyte solutions
The combination of two techniques (Small Angle X-ray Scattering and Atomic
Force Microscopy) has allowed us to measure in reciprocal and real space the
correlation length of salt-free aqueous solutions of highly charged
hydrophobic polyelectrolyte as a function of the polymer concentration ,
charge fraction and chain length . Contrary to the classical behaviour
of hydrophilic polyelectrolytes in the strong coupling limit, is strongly
dependent on . In particular a continuous transition has been observed from
to when decreased from 100% to
35%. We interpret this unusual behaviour as the consequence of the two features
characterising the hydrophobic polyelectrolytes: the pearl necklace
conformation of the chains and the anomalously strong reduction of the
effective charge fraction.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Europhysics Letter
Conductance of the single-electron transistor: A comparison of experimental data with Monte Carlo calculations
We report on experimental results for the conductance of metallic
single-electron transistors as a function of temperature, gate voltage and
dimensionless conductance. In contrast to previous experiments our transistor
layout allows for a direct measurement of the parallel conductance and no ad
hoc assumptions on the symmetry of the transistors are necessary. Thus we can
make a comparison between our data and theoretical predictions without any
adjustable parameter. Even for rather weakly conducting transistors significant
deviations from the perturbative results are noted. On the other hand, path
integral Monte Carlo calculations show remarkable agreement with experiments
for the whole range of temperatures and conductances.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, revtex4, corrected typos, submitted to PR
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