Self-organization of polymers in bulk and at interfaces

Abstract

Fully atomistic analysis of polymeric systems is computationally very demanding because the time and length scales involved span over several orders of magnitude. At the same time many properties of polymers are universal in the sense that they do not depend on the chemical nature of the comprising monomers. This makes coarse-grained methods, such as self-consistent field (SCF) modeling, an ideal tool for studying them. In this thesis we employ SCF modeling to study intra- and intermolecular self-organization organization of polymers and ordering of polymers near interfaces. Where possible, the results are compared to experiments and predictions of analytical theories