Seminario

Topological soft materials: joining the ends of polymers to obtain novel supramolecular architectures

25 giugno 2021
Orario di inizio 
16:00
Online
Il link di partecipazione può essere richiesto a df.supportstaff@unitn.it
Destinatari: 
Comunità universitaria
Partecipazione: 
Online
Referente: 
dott. Marco Zanatta
Contatti: 
Segreteria del Dipartimento di Fisica

Speaker

  • Luca Tubiana, Dipartimento di Fisica

Abstract

Topological entanglements, such as knots and links, are frequent in synthetic and bio- polymeric systems, and affect their global properties in interesting ways. In nature, topological properties are often evolutionarily selected for.  Now, recent advancements in chemical synthesis offer the possibility to produce topological soft materials, particularly systems composed of rings, in which topological constraints can be used to enforce smart responses to external stimuli. In this talk, I will introduce the main concepts and techniques used in the computational studies of  topologically entangled polymers and will show how joining the ends of a chain of rings (catenane) allows one to control their physical properties.

Who is Luca Tubiana?

Luca Tubiana is Rita Levi Montalcini researcher at the department of Physics since September 2019. His main interest is the application of statistical mechanics, computational physics, and machine learning to model the behaviour of complex systems.