CSS Talk by Sinan Keten
Sinan Keten from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA) gave an insightful talk on “Molecular investigations of fracture in polymer and nanoparticle networks”. In the first part, he elaborated on his group’s systematic coarse-graining approach applied to various polymers [1,2]. Their objective is to reduce the numerical effort of molecular dynamics simulations to such an extent that the investigation of impact or fracture problems becomes feasible with the ultimate goal of linking nano and macroscale observations.
In the second part of his talk, Sinan focused on the role of networks, brushes, and loops in polymer nanocomposite networks. In this context, the polymer chains form catch bonds, which can significantly increase the overall toughness [3].
We extend our sincere thanks to Sinan Keten for his insightful contribution to our seminar series and to all the participants for their active involvement in the lively discussion.
[1] Xia, Wenjie, et al. “Energy renormalization for coarse-graining polymers having different segmental structures.” Science advances 5.4 (2019): eaav4683.
[2] Giuntoli, Andrea, et al. “Systematic coarse-graining of epoxy resins with machine learning-informed energy renormalization.” npj computational materials 7.1 (2021): 168.
[3] Dansuk, Kerim C., and Sinan Keten. “Self-strengthening biphasic nanoparticle assemblies with intrinsic catch bonds.” Nature communications 12.1 (2021): 85.