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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Surface Segregation of Cyclic Chains in Binary Melts of Thin Polymer Films: The Influence of Constituent
Francis M Gaitho1, Mesfin Tsige2, Genene T Mola3
1School of Chemistry & Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, Private Bag X01, Scottsville 3209, South Africa. fgaitho@mmust.ac.ke.
Abstract:
We carry out extensive molecular dynamics simulations of thin films of bead-spring models of binary mixtures composed of cyclic and linear polymer chains. We study the equilibrium behavior of the polymer chains for two very different chain lengths, which resemble short (10-mers) and long (100-mers) chains, at different concentrations of the binary mixture. We clearly show how the concentration variable affects the enrichment of either of the two polymer species at the interface, and also how the chain length influences this process.
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