Polymer brushes are a specific class of polymer thin films in which each chain is tethered to the underlying substrate via one chain end. In sufficiently densely grafted assemblies, the individual polymer chains are forced into an extended chain conformati ...
The introduction of interchain cross-links in surface-grafted polymer brushes increases the robustness and mechanical properties of these thin polymer films. In most cases, cross-linked polymer brushes contain permanent interchain cross-links. The use of r ...
Rapid adhesion between tissue and synthetic materials is relevant to accelerate wound healing and to facilitate the integration of implantable medical devices. Most frequently, tissue adhesives are applied as a gel or a liquid formulation. This manuscript ...
Donor-acceptor (D-A) extended copolymers have shown great potential to be exploited for intramolecular singlet fission (iSF) because of their modular tunability and intrinsic ability to incorporate low-lying charge-transfer (CT) and a triplet-pair (1TT) st ...
Simulations and experiments of nanorods (NRs) show that co-assembly with block copolymer (BCP) melts leads to the formation of a superstructure of side-to-side NRs perpendicular to the lamellar axis. A mesoscopic model is validated against scanning electro ...
As a result of nonequilibrium forces, purely repulsive self-propelled particles undergo macrophase separation between a dense and a dilute phase. We present a thorough study of the ordering kinetics of such motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) in activ ...
Advances in controlled radical polymerization over the past two decades have transformed the ability to produce molecularly well-defined, chain-end tethered polymer brush films. The assets of controlled radical polymerization reactions have impacted the sy ...
This Thesis is built around 4 topics, which share in common that they all take advantage of the assets of controlled radical polymerization to either (i) prepare well-defined model systems to address fundamental research questions with regard to the sensit ...
Some marine plankton called dinoflagellates emit light in response to the movement of surrounding water, resulting in a phenomenon called milky seas or sea sparkle. The underlying concept, a shear-stress induced permeabilisation of biocatalytic reaction co ...
The structural, thermomechanical, and viscoelastic properties of metallosupramolecular polymers (MSPs) can be controlled through the choice of the multiligand monomer and the nature of the metal salt from which these materials are assembled. This versatili ...
