Polymer depletion-driven colloids, and polymer-surface interactions

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to give an insight about several still non rather well understood issues in polymeric and colloidal systems: phase transformations in depletion-driven colloids, spherical polymer brushes, polymer chains confined to spherical surfaces, adsorption of stiff copolymers on homogeneous flat surfaces, and stiff polymer adsorption onto striped surfaces. All the above topics have been addressed by using Monte-Carlo and Brownian Dynamics numerical techniques.