Colloid-Polymer Systems: Statics and Dynamics

“胶体-聚合物系统：静态和动态”的相平衡，静态和动态微观结构，以及胶体颗粒和可溶性非吸附聚合物混合物的扩散特性将被研究。这些体系要么是块状的三维体系，要么被限制在二维薄膜、狭缝孔、一维和准一维通道中。将研究聚合物-胶体尺寸比的最大可能范围，从小聚合物和大胶体的“胶体极限”深入到大聚合物和小胶体的“蛋白质极限”。要研究的胶体-聚合物系统由硬球状（中性或带电，具有高度屏蔽的相互作用）的胶体颗粒和可溶且不吸附于胶体悬浮液中的聚合物组成。将使用由数学家和物理学家开发的最有效的计算机模拟方法的组合，并基于直方图重加权和有限尺寸缩放，理论（统计热力学）和实验（光刻，视频显微镜，荧光显微镜，图像分析）。所建议活动的智力价值将要研究的问题是具有挑战性的基础问题，需要统计热力学，计算机模拟，理论和实验物理化学以及凝聚态物理的专业知识。特别是，在这个项目中提出的强大的计算机模拟将导致在分子水平上对中性胶体颗粒之间可溶性聚合物诱导力的微妙关键问题的重要理解，这些问题仅靠理论和实验无法解决。Panagiotopoulos教授（普林斯顿大学）已经同意与PI合作进行计算机模拟，而该项目不需要任何费用。拟议活动的更广泛影响除研究生外，大量本科生将参加拟议的活动，其中一些将在国家和地区科学会议上发表演讲，并成为出版物的共同作者。PI将参与莱斯大学的几个推广项目，在这些项目中，他将与休斯顿以非裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人为主的公立学校的初中和高中教师和学生讨论这一拟议的活动，这些学校在学术界的代表性最不足。PI还将在夏天接待几名中学生访问他的实验室一周。本项目由两个CTS项目支持：界面、传输和热力学子项目；微粒和多相过程。

Marc A. RobertWilliam Marsh Rice University "Colloid-Polymer Systems: Statics and Dynamics"Phase equilibria, static and dynamic microstructures, and diffusion properties of mixtures of colloidal particles and soluble non-adsorbing polymers will be investigated. The systems are either bulk three-dimensional ones, or they are confined to two-dimensional films, slit pores, and one- and quasi one-dimensional channels. The largest possible range of polymer-to-colloid size ratios will be investigated, from deep into the "colloid limit" of small polymer and large colloid, to deep into the "protein limit" of large polymer and small colloid. The colloid-polymer systems to be investigated consist of colloidal particles which are hard-sphere like (neutral or charged with a highly screened interaction), and of polymer which is soluble and non-adsorbing in the colloidal suspensions. A combination of the most efficient computer simulation methods developed by mathematicians and physicists and based on histogram reweighting and finite-size scaling, of theory (statistical thermodynamics) and of experiment (lithography, video microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, image analysis) will be used.Intellectual Merit of the Proposed ActivityThe problems that will be studied are challenging fundamental ones which require expertise in statistical thermodynamics, computer simulations, theoretical and experimental physical chemistry, and condensed matter physics. In particular, the powerful computer simulations proposed in this project will lead to significant understanding at a molecular level of the subtle key issues of soluble polymer-induced forces between neutral colloidal particles, which theory and experiment alone have not been able to resolve. Professor Panagiotopoulos (Princeton University) has agreed to collaborate with the PI on computer simulations at no cost to the project.Broader Impacts Resulting from the Proposed ActivityIn addition to graduate students, a large number of undergraduate students will take part in the proposed activity, and several will make presentations at national and regional scientific meetings and become co-authors of publications.The PI will be involved in several outreach programs of Rice University, in which hewill discuss this proposed activity in understandable terms with middle- and high schoolteachers and students, in predominantly African-American and Hispanic public schools ofHouston, those most largely underrepresented in academia. The PI will also host severalmiddle-school students in the summer to visit his laboratory for one week.The project is supported by two CTS programs: Interfacial, Transport, and Thermodynamics sub-program; Particulate and Multiphase Processes.