In this study,we investigate the ef-ficacy of a hybrid parallel algo-rithm aiming at enhancing the speed of evaluation of two-electron repulsion integrals(ERI)and Fock matrix generation on the Hygon C86/DCU(deep compu...In this study,we investigate the ef-ficacy of a hybrid parallel algo-rithm aiming at enhancing the speed of evaluation of two-electron repulsion integrals(ERI)and Fock matrix generation on the Hygon C86/DCU(deep computing unit)heterogeneous computing platform.Multiple hybrid parallel schemes are assessed using a range of model systems,including those with up to 1200 atoms and 10000 basis func-tions.The findings of our research reveal that,during Hartree-Fock(HF)calculations,a single DCU ex-hibits 33.6 speedups over 32 C86 CPU cores.Compared with the efficiency of Wuhan Electronic Structure Package on Intel X86 and NVIDIA A100 computing platform,the Hygon platform exhibits good cost-effective-ness,showing great potential in quantum chemistry calculation and other high-performance scientific computations.展开更多
The self-consistent field theory(SCFT)was employed to numerically study the interaction and interpenetration between two opposing weak polyelectrolyte(PE)brushes formed by grafting weak PE chains onto the surfaces of ...The self-consistent field theory(SCFT)was employed to numerically study the interaction and interpenetration between two opposing weak polyelectrolyte(PE)brushes formed by grafting weak PE chains onto the surfaces of two long and parallel columns with rectangularshaped cross-section immersed in a salty aqueous solution.The dependences of the brush heights and the average degree of ionization on various system parameters were also investigated.When the brush separation is relatively large compared with the unperturbed brush height,the degree of interpenetration between the two opposing PE brushes was found to increase with increasing grafting density and bulk degree of ionization.The degree of interpenetration also increases with the bulk salt concentration in the osmotic brush regime.Numerical results further revealed that,at a brush separation comparable to the unperturbed brush height,the degree of interpenetration does not increase further with increasing bulk degree of ionization,bulk salt concentration in the osmotic regime and grafting density.The saturation of the degree of interpenetration with these system parameters indicates that the grafted PE chains in the gap between the two columns retract and tilt in order to reduce the unfavorable electrostatic and steric repulsions between the two opposing PE brushes.Based on salt ion concentrations at the midpoint between the two opposing brushes,a quantitative criterion in terms of the unperturbed brush height and Debye screening length was established to determine the threshold value of the brush separation beyond which they are truly independent from each other.展开更多
The morphological changes of ABA amphiphilic triblock copolymer micelles in dilute solution were systematically studied by tuning the solvent property using self-consistent field simulation. The solvent property was t...The morphological changes of ABA amphiphilic triblock copolymer micelles in dilute solution were systematically studied by tuning the solvent property using self-consistent field simulation. The solvent property was tuned by changing the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters between each type of blocks and solvent, respectively. The simulation results show that by changing the solvent properties, a series of micelle morphologies such as vesicle, cage-like, ring-shaped, rod-like and spherical micelle morphologies can be obtained. Variations of the free energy of the solution system and the surface area of micelles with the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters were calculated to better understand the effect of solvent property on micelle morphologies. In addition, a phase diagram showing the morphological changes of micelles with the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters is provided.展开更多
Self-assembled nanostructures of lipids and nanoparticles hold great promise for applications in such fields as nanomedicine. This paper uses the self-consistent field theory to investigate the self-assembly behavior ...Self-assembled nanostructures of lipids and nanoparticles hold great promise for applications in such fields as nanomedicine. This paper uses the self-consistent field theory to investigate the self-assembly behavior of lipid molecules and nanoparticles with different shapes in an aqueous solution. It is found that the lipid molecules can form monolayered and bilayered nanostructures around the nanopartieles with different shapes （e.g., triangular, square, hexagonal and octangular）. With decreasing the size of nanoparticles or increasing the number of polygon edges, the shape of lipid layers will approach an approximately spherical shape. These findings may help to predict and design novel drug delivery nanocarriers.展开更多
The self-consistent Hartree-Fock equation for the He atom is solved using the pseudospectral method. The Feshbach- type autoionization resonance parameters for doubly excited 2s2, 3s2, and 4s2 IS states of He have bee...The self-consistent Hartree-Fock equation for the He atom is solved using the pseudospectral method. The Feshbach- type autoionization resonance parameters for doubly excited 2s2, 3s2, and 4s2 IS states of He have been determined by adding a complex absorbing potential to the Hamiltonian. The Riss-Meyer iterative and Pad6 extrapolation methods are applied to obtain reliable values for the autoionization resonance parameters, which are compared to previous results in the literature.展开更多
The self-consistent field theory has been employed to numerically study the response of bi-disperse flexible polyelectrolyte （PE） brushes grafted on an electrode to electric fields generated by opposite surface char...The self-consistent field theory has been employed to numerically study the response of bi-disperse flexible polyelectrolyte （PE） brushes grafted on an electrode to electric fields generated by opposite surface charges on the PE-grafted electrode and a second parallel electrode. The numerical study reveals that, under a positive external electric field, the shorter and negatively charged PE chains are more responsive than the longer PE chains in terms of the relative changes in their respective brush heights. Whereas under a negative external electric field, the opposite was observed. The total electric force on the grafted PE chains was calculated and it was found that, under a positive external electric field, the magnitude of the total electric force acting on one shorter PE chain is larger than that on one longer PE chain, or vice versa. The underlying mechanism was unraveled through analyzing the total electric field across the two oppositely charged electrodes.展开更多
The adsorption of flexible polyelectrolyte （PE） with the smeared charge distribution onto an oppositely charged sphere immersed in a PE solution is studied numerically with the continuum self-consistent field theory...The adsorption of flexible polyelectrolyte （PE） with the smeared charge distribution onto an oppositely charged sphere immersed in a PE solution is studied numerically with the continuum self-consistent field theory. The power law scaling relationships between the boundary layer thickness and the surface charge density and the charge fraction of PE chains revealed in the study are in good agreement with the existing analytical result. The curvature effect on the degree of charge compensation of the total amount of charges on the adsorbed PE chains over the surface charges is examined, and a clear understanding of it based on the dependences of the degree of charge compensation on the surface charge density and the charge fraction of PE chains is established.展开更多
ABCA tetrablock copolymers offer new opportunities for design of materials with novel structures. Using real-space self- consistent field theory and simulation, we systematically examined the self-assembly behavior of...ABCA tetrablock copolymers offer new opportunities for design of materials with novel structures. Using real-space self- consistent field theory and simulation, we systematically examined the self-assembly behavior of linear ABCA tetrablock copolymers in a 2D space. The simulation was carried out under conditions of symmetrical compositions and interactions. We focus on the influence of chain length ratio of block A and interactions between block A and other blocks B and C on the self-assembly behavior of the copolymer system. The simulation results show that most of the structures self-assembled by the ABCA tetrablock copolymers are centrosymmetric, such as diblock-like lameUa phase, two kinds of lameUae with beads at interface, two kinds of hierarchical lamella phase, hexagonal honeycomb-like phase, lamella phase with mixed BC and hexagonal spheres with mixed BC. Furthermore, we find that a novel noncentrosymmetric Janus spheres can be obtained when the interaction between blocks B and C is strong, whereas a noncentrosymmetric lamella phase was obtained at weak interaction between blocks B and C. Phase diagrams for the ABCA tetrablock copolymers with different interaction strength between blocks B and C are constructed by comparing free energies of candidate ordered structures. In addition, studies on the metastable behavior of the system reveal that enthalpy plays an important role in the metastable behavior of the ABCA tetrablock copolymer system. Our work can provide useful guide for structure control of such kind of tetrablock copolymers in experiments.展开更多
Self-consistent field theory（SCFT）, as a state-of-the-art technique for studying the self-assembly of block copolymers, is attracting continuous efforts to improve its accuracy and efficiency. Here we present a four...Self-consistent field theory（SCFT）, as a state-of-the-art technique for studying the self-assembly of block copolymers, is attracting continuous efforts to improve its accuracy and efficiency. Here we present a fourth-order exponential time differencing Runge-Kutta algorithm（ETDRK4） to solve the modified diffusion equation（MDE） which is the most time-consuming part of a SCFT calculation. By making a careful comparison with currently most efficient and popular algorithms, we demonstrate that the ETDRK4 algorithm significantly reduces the number of chain contour steps in solving the MDE, resulting in a boost of the overall computation efficiency, while it shares the same spatial accuracy with other algorithms. In addition, to demonstrate the power of our ETDRK4 algorithm, we apply it to compute the phase boundaries of the bicontinuous gyroid phase in the strong segregation regime and to verify the existence of the triple point of the O70 phase, the lamellar phase and the cylindrical phase.展开更多
Bilayer membranes self-assembled from amphiphilic molecules such as lipids, surfactants, and block copolymers are ubiquitous in biological and physiochemical systems. The shape and structure of bilayer membranes depen...Bilayer membranes self-assembled from amphiphilic molecules such as lipids, surfactants, and block copolymers are ubiquitous in biological and physiochemical systems. The shape and structure of bilayer membranes depend crucially on their mechanical properties such as surface tension, bending moduli, and line tension. Understanding how the molecular properties of the amphiphiles determine the structure and mechanics of the self-assembled bilayers requires a molecularly detailed theoretical framework. The self-consistent field theory provides such a theoretical framework, which is capable of accurately predicting the mechanical parameters of self-assembled bilayer membranes. In this mini review we summarize the formulation of the self-consistent field theory, as exemplified by a model system composed of flexible amphiphilic chains dissolved in hydrophilic polymeric solvents, and its application to the study of self-assembled bilayer membranes.展开更多
The relativistic interaction of charged particle beams with a circularly polarized electromagnetic wave propagating along a uniform guiding magnetic field in the tunneling of a dielectric medium is analyzed. The accel...The relativistic interaction of charged particle beams with a circularly polarized electromagnetic wave propagating along a uniform guiding magnetic field in the tunneling of a dielectric medium is analyzed. The acceleration mechanism and a self-consistent nonlinear theory are presented for the interaction of relativistic charged particle beams with electromagnetic waves. Numerical results show that the beam particle can be efficiently accelerated in the interaction process.展开更多
The self-assembly of block copolymers serves as an effective approach for fabricating various periodic ordered nanostructures. By employing self-consistent field theory (SCFT) to calculate the phase diagrams of block ...The self-assembly of block copolymers serves as an effective approach for fabricating various periodic ordered nanostructures. By employing self-consistent field theory (SCFT) to calculate the phase diagrams of block copolymers, one can accurately predict their self-assembly behaviors, thus providing guidance for the fabrication of various novel structures. However, SCFT is highly sensitive to initial conditions because it finds the free energy minima through an iterative process. Consequently, constructing phase diagrams using SCFT typically requires predefined candidate structures based on the experience of researchers. Such experience-dependent strategies often miss some structures and thus result in inaccurate phase diagrams. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have demonstrated significant potential across diverse fields of science and technology. By leveraging AI methods, it is possible to reduce reliance on human experience, thereby constructing more robust and reliable phase diagrams. In this work, we demonstrate how to combine AI with SCFT to automatically search for self-assembled structures of block copolymers and construct phase diagrams. Our aim is to realize automatic construction of block copolymer phase diagrams while minimizing reliance on human prior knowledge.展开更多
The quantum field theory approach has been proposed for the description of graphene electronic properties. It generalizes massless Dirac fermion model and is based on the Dirac-Hartree-Fock self-consistent field appro...The quantum field theory approach has been proposed for the description of graphene electronic properties. It generalizes massless Dirac fermion model and is based on the Dirac-Hartree-Fock self-consistent field approximation and assumption on antiferromagnetic ordering of graphene lattice. The developed approach allows asymmetric charged carriers in single layer graphene with partially degenerated Dirac cones.展开更多
We investigate the solution self-assembly of a mixture of positively charged homopolymers and AB diblock copolymers,in which the A blocks are negatively charged,and the B blocks are neutral.The electrostatic complexat...We investigate the solution self-assembly of a mixture of positively charged homopolymers and AB diblock copolymers,in which the A blocks are negatively charged,and the B blocks are neutral.The electrostatic complexation between oppositely charged polymers drives the formation of many ordered phases.The microstructures and phase diagrams are calculated using self-consistent field theory(SCFT)based on an ion-pair model with an equilibrium constant K to characterize the strength of binding between positively and negatively charged monomers.The effects of the charge ratio,representing the ratio of charges from the homopolymer over all charges from polymers in the system,on the ordered structure are systematically studied,both for hydrophobic and hydrophilic A blocks.The charge ratio plays an important role in determining the phase boundaries in the phase diagram of salt concentration versus polymer concentration.We also provide information about the varying tendency of the domain spacing and core size of the spherical phase when the charge ratio is changed,and the results are in good agreement with experiments.These studies provide a deep understanding of the self-assembled microstructures of oppositely charged diblock copolymer-homopolymer systems.展开更多
We study the effect of chain rigidity on tailoring the nanoparticle locations for neutral and selective particles embedded in the lamellar morphology formed by semiflexible diblock copolymer chains using self-consiste...We study the effect of chain rigidity on tailoring the nanoparticle locations for neutral and selective particles embedded in the lamellar morphology formed by semiflexible diblock copolymer chains using self-consistent field calculations. The nanoparticles are modeled through a cavity function, and the semiflexible chains are represented by the continuous Kratsky-Porod chain model. In general situation, the nanoparticles prefer to stay at the interface in order to reduce the interface areas and thus the system free energy. However, the particle distribution at the domain center is subtle, and the underlying physics is intrinsically different depending on the polymer flexibility. In the case of flexible chains, the entropy just contributes a constant shift to the free energy when the nanoparticles move around the domain center indicating that the local metastable state if appears at the domain center is wholly attributed to the local minimum in the enthalpy. If the polymers are rigid, the variation of the particle distribution at the domain center has a close relation with the polymer rigidity and nanoparticle size. In the case of strongly rigid polymers with small nanoparticles, a nearly uniform particle distribution at the domain center is observed, while in other cases, a local enhancement of particle distribution there is found. In contrast to the case of flexible chains, further analysis reveals the crucial role of entropy in controlling the shape of particle distributions at the phase domain. Specifically, the local metastable state appears in the domain center is determined by the large entropy there which arises from the weak coupling of bond orientations that allows the polymer chains to be relatively relaxed. When the particle becomes selective, its distribution in the phase domain exhibits a shift almost uniformly rather than changes its profile, and the underlying physics still holds. In all, our study establishes a strong coupling between the chain rigidity and effect of entropy.展开更多
We propose a novel self-consistent mean field approximation method by means of a Fierz transformation,taking the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model as an example.This new self-consistent mean field approximation introduces a ne...We propose a novel self-consistent mean field approximation method by means of a Fierz transformation,taking the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model as an example.This new self-consistent mean field approximation introduces a new free parameter a to be determined experimentally.When a assumes the value of 0.5,the approximation reduces to the mean field calculation commonly used in the past.Subsequently,we study the influence of the undetermined parameter a on the phase diagram of the two-flavor strong interaction matter.The value of a plays a crucial role in the strong interaction phase diagram,as it not only changes the position of the phase transition point of strong interaction matter,but also affects the order of the phase transition.For example,when a is greater than the critical valueαc = 0.71,then the strong interaction matter phase diagram no longer has a critical end point.In addition,in the case of zero temperature and finite density,we found that when a>1.044,the pseudo-critical chemical potential corresponds to ～4-5 times the saturation density of the nuclear matter,which agrees with the expected results from the picture of the hadrons degree of freedom.The resulting equations of state of strong interaction matter at low temperatures and high densities will have an important impact on studies concerning the mass radius relationship of neutron stars and the merging process of binary neutron stars.展开更多
In this study,we apply a self-consistent mean field approximation of the three-flavor Nambu–Jona-Lasinio(NJL)model and compare it with the two-flavor NJL model.The self-consistent mean field approximation introduces ...In this study,we apply a self-consistent mean field approximation of the three-flavor Nambu–Jona-Lasinio(NJL)model and compare it with the two-flavor NJL model.The self-consistent mean field approximation introduces a new parameter,α,that cannot be fixed in advance by the mean field approach itself.Due to the lack of experimental data,the parameter,α,is undetermined.Hence,it is regarded as a free parameter and its influence on the chiral phase transition of strong interaction matter is studied based on this self-consistent mean field approximation.αaffects numerous properties of the chiral phase transitions,such as the position of the phase transition point and the order of phase transition.Additionally,increasingαwill decrease the number densities of different quarks and increase the chemical potential at which the number density of the strange quark is non-zero.Finally,we observed thatαaffects the equation of state(EOS)of the quark matter,and the sound velocity can be calculated to determine the stiffness of the EOS,which provides a good basis for studying the neutron star mass-radius relationship.展开更多
The self-consistent field theory (SCFT) based upon coarse-grained model is especially suitable for investigating thermodynamic equilibrium morphology and the phase diagram of inhomo-geneous polymer systems subjected t...The self-consistent field theory (SCFT) based upon coarse-grained model is especially suitable for investigating thermodynamic equilibrium morphology and the phase diagram of inhomo-geneous polymer systems subjected to phase separation. The advantage of this model is that the details of the chain such as the architecture of the chain and the sequence of blocks can be consid-ered. We present here an overview of SCFT approach and its applications in polymeric systems. In particular, we wish to focus on our group’s achievements in applications of SCFT in such fields: simulation of microphase separation morphologies of multiblock copolymers with a complex molecular architecture, interactions between brush-coated sheets in a polymer matrix, mixtures of flexible poly-mers and small molecular liquid crystals at the interface, shapes of polymer-chain-anchored fluid vesicles, self-assembled morphologies of block copolymers in dilute solution, and so on. Finally, the further developments as well as the perspective applications of SCFT are discussed.展开更多
The symmetry orbital-symmetry orbital tensor method is applied to the evaluation of molecular integrals (one-electron and two-electron integrals) and the symmetry-orbital-tensor and self-consistent-field (SOT-SCF) cal...The symmetry orbital-symmetry orbital tensor method is applied to the evaluation of molecular integrals (one-electron and two-electron integrals) and the symmetry-orbital-tensor and self-consistent-field (SOT-SCF) calculations. A calculation scheme is proposed to simplify the evaluation of integrals and a key equation is derived to reduce the computation efforts in SCF iterations. According to the key equation, compared with the traditional SCF method, the computation efficiencies including CPU timing and external disk (or internal memory) requirement increase in the magnitude of the square of the order of a point group. The new SOT method is expected to be useful in the theoretical calculations of large molecular systems of high point group symmetries.展开更多
This review article addresses the widely used self-consistent field theory(SCFT)in interacting polymer systems.The theoretical framework and numerical method of solving the self-consistent equations are presented.In t...This review article addresses the widely used self-consistent field theory(SCFT)in interacting polymer systems.The theoretical framework and numerical method of solving the self-consistent equations are presented.In this paper,different structures of polymer can be considered,such as homopolymer,block copolymer,polydisperse polymer and charged polymer.Several systems,micro/macro phase separation,interface,self-assembly,are presented as examples to demonstrate its applications in details.Besides,the fluctuation effects are considered.The first order is Gaussian fluctuation theory,which can be used to determine the stability of the mean-field solution and predict the kinetics of unstable structure.The derivation and applications of Gaussian fluctuation theory are presented as well.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.22373112 to Ji Qi,No.22373111 and 21921004 to Minghui Yang)GH-fund A(No.202107011790)。
文摘In this study,we investigate the ef-ficacy of a hybrid parallel algo-rithm aiming at enhancing the speed of evaluation of two-electron repulsion integrals(ERI)and Fock matrix generation on the Hygon C86/DCU(deep computing unit)heterogeneous computing platform.Multiple hybrid parallel schemes are assessed using a range of model systems,including those with up to 1200 atoms and 10000 basis func-tions.The findings of our research reveal that,during Hartree-Fock(HF)calculations,a single DCU ex-hibits 33.6 speedups over 32 C86 CPU cores.Compared with the efficiency of Wuhan Electronic Structure Package on Intel X86 and NVIDIA A100 computing platform,the Hygon platform exhibits good cost-effective-ness,showing great potential in quantum chemistry calculation and other high-performance scientific computations.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21774067)The Foundation of Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics of Zhejiang Province(No.2023FE004)C.T.acknowledges the support from K.C.Wong Magna at Ningbo University。
文摘The self-consistent field theory(SCFT)was employed to numerically study the interaction and interpenetration between two opposing weak polyelectrolyte(PE)brushes formed by grafting weak PE chains onto the surfaces of two long and parallel columns with rectangularshaped cross-section immersed in a salty aqueous solution.The dependences of the brush heights and the average degree of ionization on various system parameters were also investigated.When the brush separation is relatively large compared with the unperturbed brush height,the degree of interpenetration between the two opposing PE brushes was found to increase with increasing grafting density and bulk degree of ionization.The degree of interpenetration also increases with the bulk salt concentration in the osmotic brush regime.Numerical results further revealed that,at a brush separation comparable to the unperturbed brush height,the degree of interpenetration does not increase further with increasing bulk degree of ionization,bulk salt concentration in the osmotic regime and grafting density.The saturation of the degree of interpenetration with these system parameters indicates that the grafted PE chains in the gap between the two columns retract and tilt in order to reduce the unfavorable electrostatic and steric repulsions between the two opposing PE brushes.Based on salt ion concentrations at the midpoint between the two opposing brushes,a quantitative criterion in terms of the unperturbed brush height and Debye screening length was established to determine the threshold value of the brush separation beyond which they are truly independent from each other.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21104078)the Project of Science and Technology of Jilin Province,China(No.201201096)the Scientific Research Starting Foundation for the Jilin Agricultural University,China(No.201212)
文摘The morphological changes of ABA amphiphilic triblock copolymer micelles in dilute solution were systematically studied by tuning the solvent property using self-consistent field simulation. The solvent property was tuned by changing the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters between each type of blocks and solvent, respectively. The simulation results show that by changing the solvent properties, a series of micelle morphologies such as vesicle, cage-like, ring-shaped, rod-like and spherical micelle morphologies can be obtained. Variations of the free energy of the solution system and the surface area of micelles with the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters were calculated to better understand the effect of solvent property on micelle morphologies. In addition, a phase diagram showing the morphological changes of micelles with the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters is provided.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(10972121)the Ministry of Education (SRFDP 20090002110047)the 973 Program of MOST(2012CB934101)
文摘Self-assembled nanostructures of lipids and nanoparticles hold great promise for applications in such fields as nanomedicine. This paper uses the self-consistent field theory to investigate the self-assembly behavior of lipid molecules and nanoparticles with different shapes in an aqueous solution. It is found that the lipid molecules can form monolayered and bilayered nanostructures around the nanopartieles with different shapes （e.g., triangular, square, hexagonal and octangular）. With decreasing the size of nanoparticles or increasing the number of polygon edges, the shape of lipid layers will approach an approximately spherical shape. These findings may help to predict and design novel drug delivery nanocarriers.
文摘The self-consistent Hartree-Fock equation for the He atom is solved using the pseudospectral method. The Feshbach- type autoionization resonance parameters for doubly excited 2s2, 3s2, and 4s2 IS states of He have been determined by adding a complex absorbing potential to the Hamiltonian. The Riss-Meyer iterative and Pad6 extrapolation methods are applied to obtain reliable values for the autoionization resonance parameters, which are compared to previous results in the literature.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21374052)the support from K.C.Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University
文摘The self-consistent field theory has been employed to numerically study the response of bi-disperse flexible polyelectrolyte （PE） brushes grafted on an electrode to electric fields generated by opposite surface charges on the PE-grafted electrode and a second parallel electrode. The numerical study reveals that, under a positive external electric field, the shorter and negatively charged PE chains are more responsive than the longer PE chains in terms of the relative changes in their respective brush heights. Whereas under a negative external electric field, the opposite was observed. The total electric force on the grafted PE chains was calculated and it was found that, under a positive external electric field, the magnitude of the total electric force acting on one shorter PE chain is larger than that on one longer PE chain, or vice versa. The underlying mechanism was unraveled through analyzing the total electric field across the two oppositely charged electrodes.
基金Project supports by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.21074062 and 11174163)the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars,Ministry of Education of Chinathe Scientific Research Fund of Zhejiang Provincial Educational Department,China(Grant No.Y200907455)
文摘The adsorption of flexible polyelectrolyte （PE） with the smeared charge distribution onto an oppositely charged sphere immersed in a PE solution is studied numerically with the continuum self-consistent field theory. The power law scaling relationships between the boundary layer thickness and the surface charge density and the charge fraction of PE chains revealed in the study are in good agreement with the existing analytical result. The curvature effect on the degree of charge compensation of the total amount of charges on the adsorbed PE chains over the surface charges is examined, and a clear understanding of it based on the dependences of the degree of charge compensation on the surface charge density and the charge fraction of PE chains is established.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21474107)
文摘ABCA tetrablock copolymers offer new opportunities for design of materials with novel structures. Using real-space self- consistent field theory and simulation, we systematically examined the self-assembly behavior of linear ABCA tetrablock copolymers in a 2D space. The simulation was carried out under conditions of symmetrical compositions and interactions. We focus on the influence of chain length ratio of block A and interactions between block A and other blocks B and C on the self-assembly behavior of the copolymer system. The simulation results show that most of the structures self-assembled by the ABCA tetrablock copolymers are centrosymmetric, such as diblock-like lameUa phase, two kinds of lameUae with beads at interface, two kinds of hierarchical lamella phase, hexagonal honeycomb-like phase, lamella phase with mixed BC and hexagonal spheres with mixed BC. Furthermore, we find that a novel noncentrosymmetric Janus spheres can be obtained when the interaction between blocks B and C is strong, whereas a noncentrosymmetric lamella phase was obtained at weak interaction between blocks B and C. Phase diagrams for the ABCA tetrablock copolymers with different interaction strength between blocks B and C are constructed by comparing free energies of candidate ordered structures. In addition, studies on the metastable behavior of the system reveal that enthalpy plays an important role in the metastable behavior of the ABCA tetrablock copolymer system. Our work can provide useful guide for structure control of such kind of tetrablock copolymers in experiments.
基金financially supported by the China Scholarship Council (No. 201406105018)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21004013)the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2011CB605701)
文摘Self-consistent field theory（SCFT）, as a state-of-the-art technique for studying the self-assembly of block copolymers, is attracting continuous efforts to improve its accuracy and efficiency. Here we present a fourth-order exponential time differencing Runge-Kutta algorithm（ETDRK4） to solve the modified diffusion equation（MDE） which is the most time-consuming part of a SCFT calculation. By making a careful comparison with currently most efficient and popular algorithms, we demonstrate that the ETDRK4 algorithm significantly reduces the number of chain contour steps in solving the MDE, resulting in a boost of the overall computation efficiency, while it shares the same spatial accuracy with other algorithms. In addition, to demonstrate the power of our ETDRK4 algorithm, we apply it to compute the phase boundaries of the bicontinuous gyroid phase in the strong segregation regime and to verify the existence of the triple point of the O70 phase, the lamellar phase and the cylindrical phase.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11421101 and 21274005)the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council(NSERC)of Canada
文摘Bilayer membranes self-assembled from amphiphilic molecules such as lipids, surfactants, and block copolymers are ubiquitous in biological and physiochemical systems. The shape and structure of bilayer membranes depend crucially on their mechanical properties such as surface tension, bending moduli, and line tension. Understanding how the molecular properties of the amphiphiles determine the structure and mechanics of the self-assembled bilayers requires a molecularly detailed theoretical framework. The self-consistent field theory provides such a theoretical framework, which is capable of accurately predicting the mechanical parameters of self-assembled bilayer membranes. In this mini review we summarize the formulation of the self-consistent field theory, as exemplified by a model system composed of flexible amphiphilic chains dissolved in hydrophilic polymeric solvents, and its application to the study of self-assembled bilayer membranes.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.51275029,51102007 and 11275007)
文摘The relativistic interaction of charged particle beams with a circularly polarized electromagnetic wave propagating along a uniform guiding magnetic field in the tunneling of a dielectric medium is analyzed. The acceleration mechanism and a self-consistent nonlinear theory are presented for the interaction of relativistic charged particle beams with electromagnetic waves. Numerical results show that the beam particle can be efficiently accelerated in the interaction process.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.52394272,22333002,22203018,22303017).
文摘The self-assembly of block copolymers serves as an effective approach for fabricating various periodic ordered nanostructures. By employing self-consistent field theory (SCFT) to calculate the phase diagrams of block copolymers, one can accurately predict their self-assembly behaviors, thus providing guidance for the fabrication of various novel structures. However, SCFT is highly sensitive to initial conditions because it finds the free energy minima through an iterative process. Consequently, constructing phase diagrams using SCFT typically requires predefined candidate structures based on the experience of researchers. Such experience-dependent strategies often miss some structures and thus result in inaccurate phase diagrams. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have demonstrated significant potential across diverse fields of science and technology. By leveraging AI methods, it is possible to reduce reliance on human experience, thereby constructing more robust and reliable phase diagrams. In this work, we demonstrate how to combine AI with SCFT to automatically search for self-assembled structures of block copolymers and construct phase diagrams. Our aim is to realize automatic construction of block copolymer phase diagrams while minimizing reliance on human prior knowledge.
文摘The quantum field theory approach has been proposed for the description of graphene electronic properties. It generalizes massless Dirac fermion model and is based on the Dirac-Hartree-Fock self-consistent field approximation and assumption on antiferromagnetic ordering of graphene lattice. The developed approach allows asymmetric charged carriers in single layer graphene with partially degenerated Dirac cones.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)(Nos.22073002,51921002 and 22373008).
文摘We investigate the solution self-assembly of a mixture of positively charged homopolymers and AB diblock copolymers,in which the A blocks are negatively charged,and the B blocks are neutral.The electrostatic complexation between oppositely charged polymers drives the formation of many ordered phases.The microstructures and phase diagrams are calculated using self-consistent field theory(SCFT)based on an ion-pair model with an equilibrium constant K to characterize the strength of binding between positively and negatively charged monomers.The effects of the charge ratio,representing the ratio of charges from the homopolymer over all charges from polymers in the system,on the ordered structure are systematically studied,both for hydrophobic and hydrophilic A blocks.The charge ratio plays an important role in determining the phase boundaries in the phase diagram of salt concentration versus polymer concentration.We also provide information about the varying tendency of the domain spacing and core size of the spherical phase when the charge ratio is changed,and the results are in good agreement with experiments.These studies provide a deep understanding of the self-assembled microstructures of oppositely charged diblock copolymer-homopolymer systems.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.22173002)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.YWF-22-K-101)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities from Beihang University。
文摘We study the effect of chain rigidity on tailoring the nanoparticle locations for neutral and selective particles embedded in the lamellar morphology formed by semiflexible diblock copolymer chains using self-consistent field calculations. The nanoparticles are modeled through a cavity function, and the semiflexible chains are represented by the continuous Kratsky-Porod chain model. In general situation, the nanoparticles prefer to stay at the interface in order to reduce the interface areas and thus the system free energy. However, the particle distribution at the domain center is subtle, and the underlying physics is intrinsically different depending on the polymer flexibility. In the case of flexible chains, the entropy just contributes a constant shift to the free energy when the nanoparticles move around the domain center indicating that the local metastable state if appears at the domain center is wholly attributed to the local minimum in the enthalpy. If the polymers are rigid, the variation of the particle distribution at the domain center has a close relation with the polymer rigidity and nanoparticle size. In the case of strongly rigid polymers with small nanoparticles, a nearly uniform particle distribution at the domain center is observed, while in other cases, a local enhancement of particle distribution there is found. In contrast to the case of flexible chains, further analysis reveals the crucial role of entropy in controlling the shape of particle distributions at the phase domain. Specifically, the local metastable state appears in the domain center is determined by the large entropy there which arises from the weak coupling of bond orientations that allows the polymer chains to be relatively relaxed. When the particle becomes selective, its distribution in the phase domain exhibits a shift almost uniformly rather than changes its profile, and the underlying physics still holds. In all, our study establishes a strong coupling between the chain rigidity and effect of entropy.
基金Supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(11690030,11475085,11535005)National Major state Basic Research and Development of China(2016YFE0129300)
文摘We propose a novel self-consistent mean field approximation method by means of a Fierz transformation,taking the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model as an example.This new self-consistent mean field approximation introduces a new free parameter a to be determined experimentally.When a assumes the value of 0.5,the approximation reduces to the mean field calculation commonly used in the past.Subsequently,we study the influence of the undetermined parameter a on the phase diagram of the two-flavor strong interaction matter.The value of a plays a crucial role in the strong interaction phase diagram,as it not only changes the position of the phase transition point of strong interaction matter,but also affects the order of the phase transition.For example,when a is greater than the critical valueαc = 0.71,then the strong interaction matter phase diagram no longer has a critical end point.In addition,in the case of zero temperature and finite density,we found that when a>1.044,the pseudo-critical chemical potential corresponds to ～4-5 times the saturation density of the nuclear matter,which agrees with the expected results from the picture of the hadrons degree of freedom.The resulting equations of state of strong interaction matter at low temperatures and high densities will have an important impact on studies concerning the mass radius relationship of neutron stars and the merging process of binary neutron stars.
文摘In this study,we apply a self-consistent mean field approximation of the three-flavor Nambu–Jona-Lasinio(NJL)model and compare it with the two-flavor NJL model.The self-consistent mean field approximation introduces a new parameter,α,that cannot be fixed in advance by the mean field approach itself.Due to the lack of experimental data,the parameter,α,is undetermined.Hence,it is regarded as a free parameter and its influence on the chiral phase transition of strong interaction matter is studied based on this self-consistent mean field approximation.αaffects numerous properties of the chiral phase transitions,such as the position of the phase transition point and the order of phase transition.Additionally,increasingαwill decrease the number densities of different quarks and increase the chemical potential at which the number density of the strange quark is non-zero.Finally,we observed thatαaffects the equation of state(EOS)of the quark matter,and the sound velocity can be calculated to determine the stiffness of the EOS,which provides a good basis for studying the neutron star mass-radius relationship.
基金This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2005CB623800) the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 20474012, 20374016 & 20104002)This review was recommended by Prof.Li Lemin,member of editorial of Science in China.
文摘The self-consistent field theory (SCFT) based upon coarse-grained model is especially suitable for investigating thermodynamic equilibrium morphology and the phase diagram of inhomo-geneous polymer systems subjected to phase separation. The advantage of this model is that the details of the chain such as the architecture of the chain and the sequence of blocks can be consid-ered. We present here an overview of SCFT approach and its applications in polymeric systems. In particular, we wish to focus on our group’s achievements in applications of SCFT in such fields: simulation of microphase separation morphologies of multiblock copolymers with a complex molecular architecture, interactions between brush-coated sheets in a polymer matrix, mixtures of flexible poly-mers and small molecular liquid crystals at the interface, shapes of polymer-chain-anchored fluid vesicles, self-assembled morphologies of block copolymers in dilute solution, and so on. Finally, the further developments as well as the perspective applications of SCFT are discussed.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 29473119)
文摘The symmetry orbital-symmetry orbital tensor method is applied to the evaluation of molecular integrals (one-electron and two-electron integrals) and the symmetry-orbital-tensor and self-consistent-field (SOT-SCF) calculations. A calculation scheme is proposed to simplify the evaluation of integrals and a key equation is derived to reduce the computation efforts in SCF iterations. According to the key equation, compared with the traditional SCF method, the computation efficiencies including CPU timing and external disk (or internal memory) requirement increase in the magnitude of the square of the order of a point group. The new SOT method is expected to be useful in the theoretical calculations of large molecular systems of high point group symmetries.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)(Grant Nos.20973176,20990234,50821062,and 20874111)973 Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology(MOST)(Grant No.2011CB808502)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
文摘This review article addresses the widely used self-consistent field theory(SCFT)in interacting polymer systems.The theoretical framework and numerical method of solving the self-consistent equations are presented.In this paper,different structures of polymer can be considered,such as homopolymer,block copolymer,polydisperse polymer and charged polymer.Several systems,micro/macro phase separation,interface,self-assembly,are presented as examples to demonstrate its applications in details.Besides,the fluctuation effects are considered.The first order is Gaussian fluctuation theory,which can be used to determine the stability of the mean-field solution and predict the kinetics of unstable structure.The derivation and applications of Gaussian fluctuation theory are presented as well.
