Biomedical subjects

S M Scheinhardt-Engels

Publications and source records attributed to S M Scheinhardt-Engels.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Steady-state analysis of polymer adsorption at and transport across an interface between two polymer phases.

We consider a mutually incompatible polymer mixture composed of two major components AN and BN and a third minority component C(N). The interactions, parameterized by short-range Flory-Huggins interaction parameters, are chosen such that C wets the A/B interface completely at three-phase coexistence. At sub-saturated conditions the adsorption of C remains necessarily microscopic. We study such a system in a stationary off-equilibrium state: due to imposed chemical potential gradients, polymer AN diffuses from the A-rich bulk phase through the interface to the A-poor bulk phase. Polymer BN travels in the opposite direction. Symmetric conditions are selected for which the polymer CN that accumulates at the A/B-interface has no net flux in the stationary state. This system is described by the Mean Field Stationary Diffusion (MFSD) model, an approach that solves the Scheutjens Fleer self-consistent-field (SF-SCF) equations with the boundary condition that the chemical potentials in the two bulk phases are different (but constant) so that a stationary state can be described. When the chemical potentials in the two bulk phases are the same, MFSD reduces to the equilibrium SF-SCF results. From the MFSD method we obtain the stationary volume fraction profiles and segmental fluxes. By forcing the system further from three-phase coexistence, i.e. by imposing larger concentration gradients, the adsorption of C goes unexpectedly from a thin adsorption layer to a thick adsorption film. The susceptibility partial differential J(A)/partial differential Delta(phi)A of the flux of A (equal to minus the flux of B) with respect to the imposed concentration gradient changes abruptly at the transition in adsorption behaviour. Interestingly, upon variation of the concentration gradients, the fluxes of A and B are enhanced by the accumulation of C at the interface. This means that the adsorbed C-film does not behave as an inert barrier.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Stationary dynamics approach to analytical approximations for polymer coexistence curves.

Phase separation in polymer blends is an important process. However, the compositions of the coexisting phases can only be predicted by numerical methods. We provide simple analytical expressions which serve as good approximations for the compositions after phase separation of binary homopolymer blends. These approximations are obtained by a stationary dynamics approach: we calculate the compositions of two polymer mixtures such that the stationary diffusion between these distinguishable mixtures vanishes. For the diffusion equations we employ composition-dependent diffusion coefficients, as derived according to the slow- and fast-mode theory from the Flory-Huggins free energy. The analytical results are in good agreement with exact (numerically calculated) binodal compositions. Our coexistence curves are more accurate than some conventional approximations. Another advantage of the stationary dynamics approach is that it is not only applicable to binary polymer blends or polymer solutions, but also to symmetrical multicomponent blends. The same diffusion coefficients may be used to obtain the exact spinodal compositions in multicomponent systems.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Lattice mean-field method for stationary polymer diffusion.

We present a method to study mean-field stationary diffusion (MFSD) in polymer systems. When gradients in chemical potentials vanish, our method reduces to the Scheutjens-Fleer self-consistent field (SF-SCF) method for inhomogeneous polymer systems in equilibrium. To illustrate the concept of our MFSD method, we studied stationary diffusion between two different bulk mixtures, containing, for simplicity, noninteracting homopolymers. Four alternatives for the diffusion equation are implemented. These alternatives are based on two different theories for polymer diffusion (the slow- and fast-mode theories) and on two different ways to evaluate the driving forces for diffusion, one of which is in the spirit of the SF-SCF method. The diffusion profiles are primarily determined by the diffusion theory and they are less sensitive to the evaluation of the driving forces. The numerical stationary state results are in excellent agreement with analytical results, in spite of a minor inconsistency at the system boundaries in the numerical method. Our extension of the equilibrium SF method might be useful for the study of fluxes, steady state profiles and chain conformations in membranes (e.g., during drug delivery), and for many other systems for which simulation techniques are too time consuming.

Biophysical Phenomena↗