Doctoral student Lisa Sappl, together with Christos Likos and Andreas Zöttl, has developed a new simulation approach to study thermophoresis of polymers – the phenomenon upon which macromolecules are being driven by a temperature gradient, which occurs when the solution is brought on contact with a cold plate on one side and a hot one on the other. Despite decades of work, it is not yet fully understood what drives some polymers to the hot side and some others to the cold one. By modifying a method known as multiparticle collision dynamics (MPCD), Sappl and coworkers were able to show that the key lies in the precise form of the interactions between monomers and solvent but at the same time it is decoupled from the equilibrium phenomenon of the transition between good- and poor-solvents. Due to its novelty and impact, the work has been chosen to be featured in the cover of the December 24, 2024, issue of the ACS-Journal “Macromolecules”.

Article: Lisa Sappl, Christos N. Likos, and Andreas Zöttl, Polymer thermophoresis by mesoscopic simulations, Macromolecules 57, 11534 - 11549 (2024).
DOI: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.macromol.4c01656