- Marco Werner
Theory of Polymers
+49(0)351 4658 754
+49(0)351 4658 752
werner-marco@ipfdd.de
Fields of Research
Theory and simulation of amphiphilic bilayer membranes interacting with macromolecules such as polymers and proteins:
- characterization of self organized vesicles and planar membranes
- embedding and transport phenomena of macromolecules into and through membranes depending, for instance, on their hydrophobicity
- influence of macromolecules on shape and fluctuations of membranes
- Simulation snapshot of a vesicle (left) and rodlike structure (right) obtained from a random starting configuration.
- Hydrophobic polymer chain getting in contact with a lipid bilayer.
Theory and simulation of polymer membranes (crosslinked monolayers of monomers):
- self organized stiffness of perfect membranes and polymeric fractals depending on connectivity
- spontaneous curvature induced by grafting polymer chains on one side of the membrane (decorated membranes)
- switching between convex and concave spontaneous curvature of decorated membranes by variation of solvent quality
- Spontaneously curved tethered membrane which is decorated by polymer chains on one side. The final publication is available at www.epj.org (DOI 10.1140/epje/i2010-10576-4)
- Tethered membrane decorated by polymer chains which are in poor solvent. Octopus micelles are self organized which bend the membrane in the opposite direction than on the left figure.
