We studied mixed poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) brushes. The question we attempted to answer was: when the chain grafting points are laterally mobile, how will this lateral mobility influence the structure and phase behavior of the mixed brush? Three different model mixed PEO/PDMAEMA brush systems were prepared: (1) a laterally mobile mixed br...

In this report, hierarchical self-organization of poly(tert-butyl acrylate) (PtBA) brushand mixed PtBA/ polystyrene (PS) brush-grafted silica nanoparticles (NPs) in PtBA-b-PS block copolymer and PtBA/PS polymer blend matrices having different molecular weights was investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Driven by the entropic interactions between the brushes and the polymer m...

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 behav...

This paper introduces RL Brush, a level-editing tool for tile-based games designed mixed-initiative co-creation. The uses reinforcement-learning-based models to augment manual human level-design through the addition of AI-generated suggestions. Here, we apply Brush designing levels classic puzzle game Sokoban. We put online and tested it in 39 different sessions. results show that users using A...

Here, we present a new method to model lateral phase separation in mixed polymer brushes physisorbed to a planar surface with mobile grafting points. The model is based on a local mean field theory that combines a Flory-Huggins approximation for interaction enthalpies with an Alexander-de Gennes brush entropy contribution. Using Monte Carlo sampling, the application of these two interactions to...

We investigate the structure and phase behavior of a two-component (binary) polymer brush in a solvent within self-consistent field theory as a function of the chains' stretching, the composition, and the incompatibility. Grafting the chains irreversibly prevents macrophase separation and the chains assemble into three-dimensional structures with lateral periodicity. At small incompatibilities ...

We propose the design of a novel mixed polymer brush system that could act as a selective sensor with a distinct on-off switch. In the proposed system, a (single) nanoparticle (such as an antibody) is end-attached to a responsive chain, which is surrounded by a brush of nonresponsive chains. The collapse of the responsive chain leads to a protected state, where the nanoparticle is hidden in the...