Seminario

Designing enhanced entropy binding in associative polymers

20 giugno 2024
Orario di inizio 
15:00
Polo Ferrari 2 - Via Sommarive 9, Povo (Trento)
Aula B107
Organizzato da: 
Department of Physics
Destinatari: 
Comunità universitaria
Partecipazione: 
Ingresso libero
Referente: 
dr. Roberto Menichetti e dr. Giovanni Marini
Contatti: 
Department of Physics Secretariat
+39 0461 281219
Speaker: 
Lorenzo Rovigatti - Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome

Abstract

Associative polymers are a class of functionalised polymeric objects in which a fraction of the monomers can bind to each other, forming either intra- or inter-polymer bonds. If the chain flexibility is large enough and the associative monomers can form only single bonds, then at low density bonding takes place essentially within the same polymer, forming soft nano-objects named single-chain nanoparticles (SCNP). At larger densities, these particles form an interconnected spanning network, and a continuous cross-over from isolated SCNPs to a network state has been observed in experiments and simulations, with no hints of a first-order transition, consistent with predictions of mean-field theory.
In this contribution, I will show by theory and simulation that a judicious design of the patterns of reactive monomers along the polymer chain can drive a fully-entropic gas-liquid phase separation in SCNP systems, achieving control over the discontinuous (first-order) change, from a phase of diluted (fully-bonded) polymers to a phase in which polymers entropically bind to each other to form a (fully-bonded) polymer network.
I will show that this effect is robust, and rests on the balance between the distinct entropic contributions controlling the binding, which can be exploited to design new self-assembling systems, as well as to better understand phase separation phenomena in associative (bio-)macromolecular systems.

Who is Lorenzo Rovigatti?

Lorenzo Rovigatti is an associate professor at the Physics Department of the Sapienza University of Rome. He holds a PhD in Materials Science and was a Lise Meitner Fellow at the University of Vienna (Austria) and a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Oxford (UK). He is a computational physicist working on soft matter systems such as colloids, polymers and self-assembling biomatter.

A Quantum of Matter

“A Quantum of Matter” è un appuntamento dedicato alla ricerca in Fisica della Materia che viene portata avanti nel nostro Dipartimento. L’obiettivo di “A Quantum of Matter” è sviluppare sinergie e collaborazioni tra i gruppi. Per questo motivo, nei seminari sarà posto l’accento non solo sui risultati ottenuti, ma anche sulle tecniche utilizzate e su possibili tematiche che potrebbero essere sviluppate in collaborazione, lasciando ampio spazio per il confronto e la discussione.

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