Current Research

I. NANOSTRUCTURES AND DISSIPATIVE PROCESSES
We postulate 3 points: 1) Friction forces have an electroweak nature; 2) The critical exponent of correlation radius is connected with the fine structure constant; 3) The critical exponent of anomaly field dimension is expressed through the constant of weak interactions. On this basis, a technique is extended to estimate some critical exponents without using the expansion over the coupling constant. The data obtained is in a agreement with those found by help of the 2D Onsager method or with recent 3D results. Numerous applications in polymer physics are considered such as plastic deformation, gel percolation, nanostructures, phase transitions, etc. In particular, the polymer plastic deformation process is regarded as the energy dissipation process due to the spontaneous symmetry breaking controlled by gauge fields. A comparison of the theory with other ones and different experimental data is carried out. (See Selected Publications, refs. [4]).

II. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF SELF-ASSEMBLING SUPRAMOLECULAR SYSTEMS OF DIFFERENT SYMMETRY
A number of the new compounds capable of forming supramolecular structures of various symmetry due to specific non-covalent interactions has been studied. The rigid wedge-shaped dendrons on basis of gallic and benzene sulfonic acids and their salts capable of self-assembling in solid state and in solutions have been presented as the main objects for the research. The derivatives of cyclosiloxane and cyclophosphasene with various mesogene and peptide substitutes have also been investigated.
The researches have revealed the ability of specified compounds to form supramolecular ensembles, which produce different lattices, for example columnar hexagonal (HEX) (Fig.1), cubic (CUB) (Fig.2) or lamellar (LAM).

III. Investigation of self-assembling and supramolecular structures in new thermotropic materials based on polymethacrylates with volume side groups of different chemical nature in comparison with lyotropic systems such as complexes of a network or linear polyelectrolyte with oppositely charged surfactants, especially studying 2D-3D transitions (See Selected Publications, ref. [2] and see below Figure showing the reconstructed from SAXS data contour maps of EDD in the unit cell of gyroid mesophase at 21C (left or up) and 85C (right or down). Sections by the plane (111) passing the points {1/8, 1/8, 1/8} – a, {2/8, 2/8, 2/8} – b, {3/8, 3/8, 3/8} – c, {4/8, 4/8, 4/8} – d,{5/8, 5/8, 5/8} – e and by the plane (1-12) passing the centre of the lattice – f are given. The white, red, yellow, light-green colors indicate high density, green and dark-green colors indicate medium density, and the remaining colors designate low density).

IV. Triply periodic minimal surfaces are constructed at so-called nodal approximation (see Figure below). There exists a good agreement of these and mentioned above results for Ia3d (gyroid) mesophase (left or up) as well as for data of Pm3n space group (right or down). The latter are in accordance with the simplest structural model suggested for lyotropic systems (See Selected Publications, refs. [3]).

V. Based on a solution of the polymer excluded volume problem, a technique is proposed (See Selected Publications, refs. [5]) to estimate some parameters at the isotropic- nematic liquid crystal phase transition (the product of the volume fraction of hard sticks and the ratio of the stick length, L, to its diameter, D; the maximum value of this ratio at which one cannot regard the stick as hard). The critical exponents are estimated. The transition of a swelling polymer coil to ideal is revealed as the polymerization degree of a macromolecule increases. The entanglement concentration obtained agrees with experimental data for polymers with flexible chains. The number of monomers between neighbor entanglements is assumed to be the ratio L/D. A comparison of the theory with other ones and recent experimental data is made.