Adsorption of decorated nanoparticles on a liquid crystalline polymer brush: molecular dynamics study

We consider a solution of nanoparticles in a pore with one of its walls being a liquid crystalline polymer brush.  Both nanoparticles' ligands and the brush molecules side chains contain the same liquid crystalline groups.  The system is studied using the molecular dynamics simulations.  At both cases of a low and high brush density, the aggregation between the pairs of nanoparticles in a bulk and between the brush molecules prevail.  However, we found a specific brush density when the nanoparticles are adsorbed more readily on a brush than aggregate in a bulk.  A set of density profiles as well as the dynamical properties of nanoparticles are analysed in all cases considered.

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