Diblock rings as interface adhesives

Work by Andrew Wijesekera and colleagues at the University of South Carolina and at Sandia National Laboratories.

Disparate polymers often do not mix well, and the resulting immiscible interfaces are mechanically weaker than the bulk. Large-scale molecular simulations with LAMMPS demonstrated the effectiveness of diblock ring polymers as a new type of adhesive for immiscible polymer interfaces: the threading of the diblock rings by linear chains from the two opposite sides is the key mechanism for stronger adhesion, analogous to the hook-and-loop process in Velcro tape.