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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
Non-monotonic effect of additive particle size on the glass transition in polymers
Elias M Zirdehi1, Fathollah Varnik1
1Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulation (ICAMS), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
Abstract:
Effect of small additive molecules on the structural relaxation of polymer melts is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. At a constant external pressure and a fixed number concentration of added molecules, the variation of the particle diameter leads to a non-monotonic change of the relaxation dynamics of the polymer melt. For non-entangled chains, this effect is rationalized in terms of an enhanced added-particle-dynamics which competes with a weaker coupling strength upon decreasing the particle size. Interestingly, cooling simulations reveal a non-monotonic effect on the glass transition temperature also for entangled chains, where the effect of additives on polymer dynamics is more intricate. This observation underlines the importance of monomer-scale packing effects on the glass transition in polymers. In view of this fact, size-adaptive thermosensitive core-shell colloids would be a promising candidate route to explore this phenomenon experimentally.
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