Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 28, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Interlocking order parameter fluctuations in structural transitions between adsorbed polymer phases
Paulo H L Martins1, Michael Bachmann
1Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, 78060-900 Cuiabá, MT, Brazil. pmartins@fisica.ufmt.br.
Abstract:
By means of contact-density chain-growth simulations of a simple coarse-grained lattice model for a polymer grafted at a solid homogeneous substrate, we investigate the complementary behavior of the numbers of surface-monomer and monomer-monomer contacts under various solvent and thermal conditions. This pair of contact numbers represents an appropriate set of order parameters that enables the distinct discrimination of significantly different compact phases of polymer adsorption. Depending on the transition scenario, these order parameters can interlock in perfect cooperation. The analysis helps understand the transitions from compact filmlike adsorbed polymer conformations into layered morphologies and dissolved adsorbed structures, respectively, in more detail.
Related Concept Videos
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Adsorption Isotherms I
Molecular Weight of Step-Growth Polymers
As the step-growth polymerization involves step-wise condensation of monomers, the molecular weight also builds up eventually. Consequently, high molecular weight polymers are obtained at the late stages of the polymerization, where 99% of monomers have been consumed.
The extent of the...
Characteristics and Nomenclature of Copolymers
Anionic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism
Step-Growth Polymerization: Overview
Many natural and synthetic polymers are produced by...

