title: Coarse-graining and phase behavior of model star polymer-colloid mixtures in solvents of varying quality.
abstract: We study the effective interactions and phase behavior of star polymer-colloid mixtures through theory and Monte Carlo simulations. We extend previous theoretical approaches for calculating the effective star-colloid pair potential to take into account attractive contributions, which become significant at worsening solvent conditions. In order to assess the validity of our simulation and theory, we compute the effective interactions via virtual move parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations using a microscopic bead-spring model for the star polymer and achieve excellent agreement. Finally, we perform grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of the coarse-grained systems to study the effect of solvent quality on the phase behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nikoubashman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Mahynski
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Capone
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Athanassios Z
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: Panagiotopoulos
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christos N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Likos