Tribology of polymer brush: microscale modelling and simulation

Abstract

In order to examine the tribological behaviour of the polymer brush, we constructed a mesoscale particle model of a polymer brush system, based on a Brownian dynamics scheme. The polymer model consists of coarse-grained beads connected with harmonic springs. The Lennard-Jones type interaction is assumed between beads. The flow velocity is affected by the local packing fraction of beads. With this model, we executed a series of molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the mechanical responses of brush to shear flow.

Keywords::

• polymer blush
• tribology
• molecular dynamics simulation

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for Prof. N. Tomita and his laboratory members at Kyoto University for encouragement and stimulating discussion.