Soft Character of Star-Like Polymer Melts: From Linear-Like Chains to Impenetrable Nanoparticles.

The importance of microscopic details in the description of the behavior of polymeric nanostructured systems, such as hairy nanoparticles, has been lately discussed via experimental and theoretical approaches. Here we focus on star polymers, which represent well-defined soft nano-objects. By means of atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, we provide a quantitative study about the effect of chemistry on the penetrability of star polymers in a melt, which cannot be considered by generic coarse-grained models.

Mikto-Arm Stars as Soft-Patchy Particles: From Building Blocks to Mesoscopic Structures.

We present an atomistic molecular dynamics study of self-assembled mikto-arm stars, which resemble patchy-like particles. By increasing the number of stars in the system, we propose a systematic way of examining the mutual orientation of these fully penetrable patchy-like objects. The individual stars maintain their patchy-like morphology when creating a mesoscopic (macromolecular) self-assembled object of more than three stars.