The use of polymeric membranes have become ubiquitous in our daily lives. From simple chip bags to million-dollar cockpits, these membranes find diverse applications in packaging, protective coating, electronic device, gas and liquid separation, and medicine. The 2-dimentional geometry of the membranes offered unique mechanical and interfacial properties that often...
Many phenomena that occur in the nanoscale, such as the self-assembly of charged amphiphiles, the metal extraction for recovering rare earth elements and nuclear waste as well as water purification, are driven by the electrostatic forces. Although current simulation techniques can handle the long-range Coulomb potential efficiently, the inhomogeneity in...
Solvent-rich polyelectrolyte complexes display a wide range of rheological properties, when different environmental parameters are applied. Due to the low energy barrier of the complexation (~10 kT), these materials possess tunable properties, with the states of these materials varying from Newtonian liquids to very tough hydrogels. This thesis aims to...