Colorado State University NSF-REU Summer
Program in Materials Chemistry Research:
Synthesis, Characterization, and Device Fabrication
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Grzegorz Szamel
For more information, visit our group webpage…
The broad goal of research
in the Szamel group is to be able to predict the macroscopic equilibrium and
dynamic properties of complex materials such as colloidal and polymeric fluids,
and supercooled simple liquids and glasses. We are currently working on the
dynamics of ring and star polymers and on self-diffusion and vibrational
relaxation in simple liquids. The present understanding of dynamics of linear
polymer chains is based on an assumption that in the melt, a given chain moves
like a snake. Ring polymers, having no ends, cannot move over large distances
via snake-like motions. It was argued that this leads to a very slow dynamics
of ring polymers in the melt. Using computer simulations we have found that
rings in the melt diffuse faster than linear chains with the same degree of
polymerization!
In the area of polymer
dynamics possible research projects may involve analysis of molecular motions
in melts of ring polymers or investigation of dynamics of other polymer
architectures. In addition, we are interested in computer simulations of simple
models of glassy systems. A new area of research concerns properties of
materials in stationary non-equilibrium states (e.g. flowing colloidal
suspensions).