Electroosmotic flow in mixed polymer brush-grafted nanochannels

Qianqian Cao, Hao You

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    15 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Mixed polymer brush-grafted nanochannels-where two distinct species of polymers are alternately grafted on the inner surface of nanochannels-are an interesting class of nanostructured hybrid materials. By using a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation method, we are able to simulate the electrokinetic transport dynamics of the fluid in such nanochannels as well as the conformational behaviors of the mixed polymer brush. We find that (1) the brush adopts vertically-layered and longitudinally-separated structures due to the coupling of electroosmotic flow (EOF) and applied electric field; (2) the solvent quality affects the brush conformations and the transport properties of the EOF; (3) the EOF flux non-monotonically depends on the grafting density, although the EOF velocity in the central region of the channel monotonically depends on the grafting density.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Article number438
    JournalPolymers
    Volume8
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2016

    Keywords

    • Dissipative particle dynamics
    • Electroosmotic flow
    • Molecular dynamics
    • Polymer brush

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Chemistry
    • Polymers and Plastics

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Electroosmotic flow in mixed polymer brush-grafted nanochannels'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this