News
Special event - P3S Webinar: Thu, 10.12.2020
3 pm
Dr. Yang Yao
Laboratory of Food and Soft Materials, ETH Zürich
Crystallization and dynamics of polymer and water under nano-sized confinement
Prof. Dr. Ernst Rössler
Experimental Physics, Universität Bayreuth
Polymer dynamics as revealed by field-cycling NMR
Tue, 15.12.2020 (Webinar)
5:15 pm
Anatoli Serghei
University Claude Bernard Lyon, France
Crystallization of nano-confined materials down to the scale of attograms and zeptograms: the impact of flow and high electric fields
The crystallization of nano-confined polymers leads to nano-materials exhibiting
physical properties different from the bulk. This is due to finite size effects, to
molecular interactions caused by the presence of interfaces as well as to orientation effects imposed by the symmetry of the confining geometry. The nano-confinement can be thus used to induce physical properties not naturally available in the bulk. Overcoming the interactions that lead to substantial changes in the properties of nano-confined materials would open the possibility of “manipulating” confinementeffects, with the perspective of inducing new material properties different from those in the bulk and in nano-confinement. In the present contribution, recent experimental developments that allow one to investigate the impact of the flow process into nanopores on the crystallization of nano-confined polymers as well as the crystallization behaviour of attograms and zeptograms of matter (1 attogram = 1E-18 grams, 1 zeptogram = 1E-21 grams) under high electric fields (1E5 V/cm) are presented. A significant difference between crystallization under static confinement and crystallization under flow in nano-confinement is reported. It is also shown that crystallization of attograms and zeptograms of matter under high electric fields leads to properties that are different from those measured in nano-confinement. Our results bring evidence for the ability of manipulating nano-confinement effects by flow or by applying high electric fields.