Nanoparticle effects on the water-oil interfacial tension

Fan, Heng; Striolo, Alberto

doi:10.1103/physreve.86.051610

Cited by 142 publications

(170 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(45 reference statements)

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“…In this manner, the surface beads are uniformly distributed on the surface and the maximum distance between surface beads is minimized. [52][53][54][55] Together with the interior beads, the surface layer generates a well-defined, relatively smooth core surface (see As in our previous studies, 56 polymer chains are modeled as a sequence of L c DPD beads that are connected by harmonic bonds, whose potential is given by Figure 2. For a biphasic system with multiple polymer-grafted nanoparticles, a much larger box is needed, whose dimensions are 40 × 40 × 100.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Assembly of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles at Oil–Water Interfaces

Yong

2015

Langmuir

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Using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD), I model the interfacial adsorption and self-assembly of polymer-grafted nanoparticles at a planar oil-water interface. The amphiphilic core-shell nanoparticles irreversibly adsorb to the interface and create a monolayer covering the interface. The polymer chains of the adsorbed nanoparticles are significantly deformed by surface tension to conform to the interface. I quantitatively characterize the properties of the particle-laden interface and the structure of the monolayer in detail at different surface coverages. I observe that the monolayer of particles grafted with long polymer chains undergoes an intriguing liquid-crystalline-amorphous phase transition in which the relationship between the monolayer structure and the surface tension/pressure of the interface is elucidated. Moreover, my results indicate that the amorphous state at high surface coverage is induced by the anisotropic distribution of the randomly grafted chains on each particle core, which leads to noncircular in-plane morphology formed under excluded volume effects. These studies provide a fundamental understanding of the interfacial behavior of polymer-grafted nanoparticles for achieving complete control of the adsorption and subsequent self-assembly.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Assembly of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles at Oil–Water Interfaces

Yong

2015

Langmuir

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“…The high-density of solid beads can efficiently repel liquid beads from penetrating the microparticles. 30,31 However, in MDPD approach, there is attractive force between liquid beads and solid microparticle based on Eq. (10).…”

Section: Ii3 Modeling Of Microparticlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulations of the Digital Microfluidic Manipulation of Single Microparticles

Lan

Pal

et al. 2015

Langmuir

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Single-cell analysis techniques have been developed as a valuable bioanalytical tool for elucidating cellular heterogeneity at genomic, proteomic, and cellular levels. Cell manipulation is an indispensable process for single-cell analysis. Digital microfluidics (DMF) is an important platform for conducting cell manipulation and single-cell analysis in a high-throughput fashion. However, the manipulation of single cells in DMF has not been quantitatively studied so far. In this article, we investigate the interaction of a single microparticle with a liquid droplet on a flat substrate using numerical simulations. The droplet is driven by capillary force generated from the wettability gradient of the substrate. Considering the Brownian motion of microparticles, we utilize many-body dissipative particle dynamics (MDPD), an off-lattice mesoscopic simulation technique, in this numerical study. The manipulation processes (including pickup, transport, and drop-off) of a single microparticle with a liquid droplet are simulated. Parametric studies are conducted to investigate the effects on the manipulation processes from the droplet size, wettability gradient, wetting properties of the microparticle, and particle-substrate friction coefficients. The numerical results show that the pickup, transport, and drop-off processes can be precisely controlled by these parameters. On the basis of the numerical results, a trap-free delivery of a hydrophobic microparticle to a destination on the substrate is demonstrated in the numerical simulations. The numerical results not only provide a fundamental understanding of interactions among the microparticle, the droplet, and the substrate but also demonstrate a new technique for the trap-free immobilization of single hydrophobic microparticles in the DMF design. Finally, our numerical method also provides a powerful design and optimization tool for the manipulation of microparticles in DMF systems.

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“…There have been a large number of reports in the literature dealing with simulations of the oil-brine-rock interface [25][26][27][28][29], which are especially useful when experimentally inaccessible molecular level information is desired. Molecular modeling provided new insights into the interaction between the CD and the other constituents of the oil-brine-rock system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%