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Dendritic and branched polymer systems

Collaborators:

Jens-Uwe Sommer, Jaroslaw Klos, Martin Wengenmayr, and Ron Dockhorn.

Introduction:

For highly branched polymers the degree of polymerization and the topology controls the conformational properties and their behavior in solution or under adsorption. The high number of end groups which can be functionalized and the rather compact conformations, in particular for dendrimers, make them attractive for various applications. The frozen-in random topology of randomly branched polymers is difficult to access experimentally. It is not clear to which extent differences in the topology change the static and dynamic behavior of these molecules and their interaction with absorbing surfaces. Regularly branched dendrimers are a special case. Here, we are interested in the effects of solvent quality, charges and their interactions with other molecules and adsorbing surfaces or interfaces.

Topics

Regular dendrimers

Investigation scaling relations, charge effects and solvent effects.

Simulation snapshot single dendrimer in good solvent

Branched Polymers

Simulation snapshot of a T-fractal

Simulation and theory of branched polymer brushes, bottlebrushes, randomly hyperbranched polymers and regular fractals.

Mixtures of different polymer architectures

Investigation of conformational changes due to different architectures and architectural driven phase separation.

simulation snapshot mixture of dendrimer and linear polymer chains

Highlights: