Polymer collision dynamics

Multiparticle collision dynamics can be combined with full molecular dynamics in order to describe the behavior of solute molecules in solution. Such hybrid MPC-MD schemes are especially useful for treating polymer and colloid dynamics since they incorporate hydrodynamic interactions. They are also useful for describing reactive systems where diffusive coupling among solute species is important. 

Most descriptions of the dynamics of molecular or particle motion in solution require a knowledge of the frictional properties of the system. This is especially true for polymer solutions, colloidal suspensions, molecular transport processes, and biomolecular conformational changes. Particle friction also plays an important role in the calculation of diffusion-influenced reaction rates, which will be discussed later. Solvent multiparticle collision dynamics, in conjunction with molecular dynamics of solute particles, provides a means to study such systems. In this section we show how the frictional properties and hydrodynamic interactions among solute or colloidal particles can be studied using hybrid MPC-MD schemes. 

Multiparticle collision dynamics describes the interactions in a many-body system in terms of effective collisions that occur at discrete time intervals. Although the dynamics is a simplified representation of real dynamics, it conserves mass, momentum, and energy and preserves phase space volumes. Consequently, it retains many of the basic characteristics of classical Newtonian dynamics. The statistical mechanical basis of multiparticle collision dynamics is well established. Starting with the specification of the dynamics and the collision model, one may verify its dynamical properties, derive macroscopic laws, and, perhaps most importantly, obtain expressions for the transport coefficients. These features distinguish MPC dynamics from a number of other mesoscopic schemes. In order to describe solute motion in solution, MPC dynamics may be combined with molecular dynamics to construct hybrid schemes that can be used to explore a variety of phenomena. The fact that hydrodynamic interactions are properly accounted for in hybrid MPC-MD dynamics makes it a useful tool for the investigation of polymer and colloid dynamics. Since it is a particle-based scheme it incorporates fluctuations so that the reactive and nonreactive dynamics in small systems where such effects are important can be studied. 

R. G. Winkler, K. Mussawisade, M. Ripoll, and G. Gompper, Rod-like colloids and polymers in shear flow a multi-particle-collision dynamics study, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 16, S3941 (2004). 

Dynamic structure factor, multiparticle collision dynamics, polymers, 124... 

Monte Carlo heat flow simulation, 75-81 multiparticle collision dynamics basic principles, 91-92 polymers, 123-124... 

Hegde, G. A. Chang, J.-F. Chen, Y.-L. Khare, R., Conformation and Diffusion Behavior of Ring Polymers in Solution A Comparison Between Molecular Dynamics, Multiparticle Collision Dynamics, and Lattice Boltzmann Simulations. J. Chem. Phys. 2011,135,184901. 

For the numerical simulation of flowing polymers, several mesoscopic models have been proposed in the last few years that describe polymer (hydro-)dynamics on a mesoscopic scale of several micrometers, typically. Among these methods, we like to mention dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) [168], stochastic rotation dynamics (sometimes also called multipartide collision dynamics) [33], and lattice Boltzmann algorithms [30]. Hybrid simulation schemes for polymer solutions have been developed recenfly, combining these methods for solvent dynamics with standard particle simulations of polymer beads (see Refs [32, 169, 170]). Extending the mesoscopic fluid models to nonideal fluids including polymer melts is currently in progress [30, 159,160,171]. 

Gompper, G., Ihle, T., Kroll, D.M., and Winkler, R.G. (2009) Multi-partide collision dynamics a partide-based mesoscale simulation approach to the hydrodynamics of complex fluids. Adv. Polym. Sci, 221, 1. 

The nature of the solvent influences both the structure of the polymer in solution and its dynamics. In good solvents the polymer adopts an expanded configuration and in poor solvents it takes on a compact form. If the polymer solution is suddenly changed from good to poor solvent conditions, polymer collapse from the expanded to compact forms will occur [78], A number of models have been suggested for the mechanism of the collapse [79-82], Hydrodynamic interactions are expected to play an important part in the dynamics of the collapse and we show how MPC simulations have been used to investigate this problem. Hybrid MD-MPC simulations of the collapse dynamics have been carried out for systems where bead-solvent interactions are either explicitly included [83] or accounted for implicitly in the multiparticle collision events [84, 85]. 

The effect of hydrodynamic interactions on polymer collapse has also been studied using MPC dynamics, where the polymer beads are included in the multiparticle collision step [28, 84]. Hydrodynamic interactions can be turned off by replacing multiparticle collisions in the cells by sampling of the particle velocities from a Boltzmann distribution. Collapse occurs more rapidly in the... 

The basic theories of physics - classical mechanics and electromagnetism, relativity theory, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, quantum electrodynamics - support the theoretical apparatus which is used in molecular sciences. Quantum mechanics plays a particular role in theoretical chemistry, providing the basis for the valence theories which allow to interpret the structure of molecules and for the spectroscopic models employed in the determination of structural information from spectral patterns. Indeed, Quantum Chemistry often appears synonymous with Theoretical Chemistry it will, therefore, constitute a major part of this book series. However, the scope of the series will also include other areas of theoretical chemistry, such as mathematical chemistry (which involves the use of algebra and topology in the analysis of molecular structures and reactions) molecular mechanics, molecular dynamics and chemical thermodynamics, which play an important role in rationalizing the geometric and electronic structures of molecular assemblies and polymers, clusters and crystals surface, interface, solvent and solid-state effects excited-state dynamics, reactive collisions, and chemical reactions. 

The dynamic behavior of liquid-crystalline polymers in concentrated solution is strongly affected by the collision of polymer chains. We treat the interchain collision effect by modelling the stiff polymer chain by what we refer to as the fuzzy cylinder [19]. This model allows the translational and rotational (self-)diffusion coefficients as well as the stress of the solution to be formulated without resort to the hypothetical tube model (Sect. 6). The results of formulation are compared with experimental data in Sects. 7-9. 

Two major entry models - the diffusion-controlled and propagation-controlled models - are widely used at present. However, Liotta et al. [28] claim that the collision entry is more probable. They developed a dynamic competitive growth model to understand the particle growth process and used it to simulate the growth of two monodisperse polystyrene populations (bidisperse system) at 50 °C. Validation of the model with on-line density and on-line particle diameter measurements demonstrated that radical entry into polymer particles is more likely to occur by a collision mechanism than by either a propagation or diffusion mechanism. 

Local motions which occur in macromolecular systems can be probed from the diffusion process of small molecules in concentrated polymeric solutions. The translational diffusion is detected from NMR over a time scale which may vary from about 1 to 100 ms. Such a time interval corresponds to a very large number of elementary collisions and a long random path consequently, details about mechanisms of molecular jump are not disclosed from this NMR approach. However, the dynamical behaviour of small solvent molecules, immersed in a polymer melt and observed over a long time interval, permits the determination of characteristic parameters of the diffusion process. Applying the Langevin s equation, the self-diffusion coefficient Ds is defined as... 

Flory [6] estimated lO collisions between functional groups before a reaction in a typical step growth polymerization. Even in the case of rodlike molecules, the local dynamics are fast though reorientation is a very slow process. Clearly, a brute force simulation of the polymerization process starting with reactive monomers and allowing them to react to form polymers seems infeasible... 

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