Statistical mechanical approach, polymer adsorption

Many authors7-21 have theoretically investigated the conformation of an isolated adsorbed polymer as a function of adsorption energy, using statistical mechanical approaches. Some important conclusions are as follows ... 

Several theories exist that describe the process of polymer adsorption, which have been developed either using a statistical mechanical approach or quasi-lattice models. In the statistical mechanical approach, the polymer is considered to consist of three... 

In this review, we introduce another approach to study the multiscale structures of polymer materials based on a lattice model. We first show the development of a Helmholtz energy model of mixing for polymers based on close-packed lattice model by combining molecular simulation with statistical mechanics. Then, holes are introduced to account for the effect of pressure. Combined with WDA, this model of Helmholtz energy is further applied to develop a new lattice DFT to calculate the adsorption of polymers at solid-liquid interface. Finally, we develop a framework based on the strong segregation limit (SSL) theory to predict the morphologies of micro-phase separation of diblock copolymers confined in curved surfaces. 

This book reviews the statistical mechanics concepts and tools necessary for the study of structure formation processes in macromolecular systems that are essentially influenced by finite-size and surface effects. Readers are introduced to molecular modeling approaches, advanced Monte Carlo simulation techniques, and systematic statistical analyses of numerical data. Apphcations to folding, aggregation, and substrate adsorption processes of polymers and proteins are discussed in great detail. Particular emphasis is placed on the reduction of complexity by coarse-grained modeling, which allows for the efficient, systematic investigation of stractural phases and transitions. 

Concluding the thermodynamic analysis, we would like to note that all the approaches are based on the general principles of thermodynamics and they do not account for specific features of pol3oner behavior used to explain properties of polymer solutions, adsorption, mechanical properties, etc. We believe that the science of adhesion should be transformed from general and qualitative descriptions to the quantitative analysis of the interphase phenomena based on statistical theories. It is also desirable to distinguish between adhesion at various phase borders such as non-polymeric solid-polymer, polymeric adhesive-an-other polymer (in any phase or aggregate state). 

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