Scaling up polymer blobs
Thursday, September 27, 2012 - 10:31
in Physics & Chemistry
Scientists use simulations to test the limits of their object of study—in this case thin films of polymers—to extremes of scale. In a study¹ about to be published in the European Physical Journal E, Nava Schulmann, a researcher at Strasbourg University, France, and colleagues use a well-known model capable of providing information on heat and mechanical energy exchange between these polymer chains. They found that polymer blends confined to ultrathin two-dimensional films displayed enhanced compatibility. This was made possible by simulations using a fairly standard model, which is simple enough to allow the efficient computation of dense large-chain systems.