Dr. Chen, Yeng-Long
Institution
1. Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
2. Chemical Engineering, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Presentation day
wednesday 9:20 AM
TITLE
Entropically-induced phase transition for strongly confined semi-flexible polymers
Abstract
Strongly confined polymers transition to more rigid, swollen conformations compared to
unconfined flexible polymers that are coils. For DNA molecules, the segmental correlation length can
increase up to a factor of two for molecules confined in a nanoslit comparable or smaller than its
persistence length. In this study, we investigated how this conformational change affect the liquid - nematic
transition for a confined dense solution using accelerated Langevin dynamics simulation. It is found that slitlike
confinement significantly reduces the transition density. The confinement is found to have similar
effects for the elastic properties of the confined nematic state. Furthermore, for confined polymers in a
crowded suspension of nanoparticles, we found that the polymer conformation can either undergo coil-toglobule
transition or adsorption to the nanoslit. The transition is found to strongly depend on the polymer /
nanoparticle size ratio, nanoparticle density, and nanoparticle / polymer - wall interactions. These results
suggest mechanisms for manipulating the morphology of polymer solution using confined environements.
CV
2011 – Associate Research Fellow Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica
2014-2015 Research Associate, Non-Newtonian Fluid Dynamics Group, MIT PI: Professor Gareth McKinley
Visiting Scientist, BioMEMS Resource Center, Massachusetts General Hospital PI: Dr. Mehmet Toner
2012-2013 Visiting Scientist, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology PI: Professors Subra Suresh and Ming Dao
2012-present Joint-Appointment Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing-Hua University
2011-present Adjunct Professor, Department of Physics, National Taiwan University
2006-2011 Assistant Research Fellow (2006 – 2011) Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica
2003-2005 Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Genomic Science Training Program
2003 Ph.D. UIUC (Chemical Engineering)
Literatures
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Chen, Y.-L.; Lin, P.-k.; Chou, C.-F., Generalized Force−Extension Relation for Wormlike Chains in Slit Confinement. Macromolecules 2010, 43 (24), 10204-10207.
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Liao, G.-J.; Chien, F.-T.; Luzhbin, D.; Chen, Y.-L., Entropic attraction: Polymer compaction and expansion induced by nano-particles in confinement. The Journal of Chemical Physics 2015, 142 (17), 174904.