Dry adhesion systems adhere via physical bonds without any significant contribution from a liquid medium. In nature, these systems are found among the footpads of spiders, lizards and many other small animals, with high adhesion force, low detachment force and elfcleaning properties. These features are highly interesting for biomimetic man-made adhesives. Heavy animals have an adhesion force much higher than its muscle force, and to enable detachment, they have evolved a functional surface with hair-like structures called setae. Each seta branches into numerous microcontact elements that interact with the contacting area. This thesis continue on previous work, analyzing the functional surface in terms of contact geometries and stress distribution, and considers, for the first time, the effect of thermal fluctuations. Numerical and analytical results show how the muscle force is concentrated to a small fraction of the adhesion area, where each microcontact element is trapped in a potential well. The rate of detachment depends on the maximal concentration of stress across the crocontacts. When a seta is axially loaded, the concentration of stress is minimized, whereas radial loading amplifies the concentration of stress by a factor of maximum 68 and enable detachment with the animal’s limited muscle force. The results give theoretical insight in the adhesion and detachment of a functional surface. This knowledge is valuable and can be considered when constructing man-made adhesives with inspiration from nature’s dry adhesion solutions.

In meiner Doktorarbeit untersuche ich ein Kac-artiges Vielteilchen-Modell, das eine Beschreibung von plastischen Verformungen ohne Verwendung einer Referenz-Konfiguration ermöglicht. Im Rahmen des Modells wird die Verformung eines Körpers durch Angabe von Atompositionen beschrieben. Es wird eine Mesoskala zwischen der Mikroskala der Atom-Atom Abstände und der Makroskala des Körpers eingeführt. Um jeden Punkt wird die Konfiguration auf dieser Mesoscala mit einem Bravais-Gitters approximiert. Die Matrix, die dieses Gitter aufspannt, wird als Argument eines elastischen Energiefunktionals verwendet. Auf diese Weise wird ein Energiefunktional definiert, das die Eigenschaften des Systems festlegt. Im Ersten Teil meiner Doktorarbeit analysiere ich das Modell im Fall das eine Referenz-Konfiguration lokal existiert. Ich schätze die Energiedichte einer solchen Konfiguration mit einer Störungsrechung von oben ab und erhalte eine obere Schranke für die Energiebarriere für plastische Relaxation in zwei Dimensionen. Im zweiten Teil untersuche ich Möglichkeiten Lagrange-Koordinaten im Rahmen des Modells zu konstruieren. Ich beweise, dass für zwei Punkte deren Abstand klein genug sind und die bestimmte Regularitätseigenschaften erfüllen, die Gitterparameter der approximierenden Bravais-Gitter bis auf eine Reparametrisierung nahe beieinander liegen müssen. Dies erlaubt diskrete Ketten von regulären Punkten zur Definition von Homotopieklassen zu benutzen die mit verallgemeinerten Burgers-Vektoren charakterisiert werden. Es ist mit dieser Technik auch möglich die Kernenergie von Versetzungen nach unten abzuschätzen. Schließlich passe ich eine Methode kontinuierliche Lagrange-Koordinaten, die von L. Mugnai und S. Luckhaus entwickelt wurden, an das Model an und verbessere sie dergestalt, dass ich die Energiedichte mit Hilfe eines Funktionales der Lagrange-Koordinaten nach unten abschätzen kann. / I study a Kac-type many particle model that allows a reference-free description of plastic deformation.In the framework of the model the state of the body is given by a set of atom position. The typical atom-atom distance is the microscopic scale. The size of the body is the macroscopic scale. Around each point a lattice is fitted to the configuration on a mesoscopic scale. The lattice parameters are used as an argument of a non-linear elasticity energy functional. Hence, this procedure allows to define an free-energy functional of a particle configuration. In the first part of my thesis I analyze the model in the case that a reference configuration exists locally. I bound the energy-density of such a configuration from above with a pertubative calculation and obtain an upper bound for the energy barrier of plastic deformation for dimension two. In the second part I explore the possibility to construct Lagrangian coordinates in the framework of the model. I prove that for two points that are close to each other and that fulfill certain regularity assumptions the fitted lattice parameters are close to each other up to a reparametrisation. This allows to use discrete chains of regular points for homotopy type arguments and define a generalized Burgers vector as a topological quantity. I also use this method to get a lower bound for the core energy of a dislocation. Finally, I adapt a method to construct continuous Lagrangian coordinates presented in by L.Mugnai and S.Luckhaus to my model and improve it to a point where I can use a functional of these Lagrangian coordinate as a lower bound for the energy of the model.

We present the phase behavior of soft sphere colloidal dispersions. The pH responsive and thermoresponsive microgels, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (pNIPAm-co-AAc), were used as a new building block of colloidal crystals. The phase behavior of microgel dispersions was studied by different methods such as optical microscopy, particle trajectories, mean squared displacement (MSD) vs. lag time plots and radial distribution function. The results show that the phase of the sample relies on the particle concentration for dispersions of the same pH. As the pH approaches the pKa of microgels, the microgel dispersions show unusual crystalline phase at lower effective volume fraction than hard sphere melting transition. Also, at this pH regime, the microgel dispersions undergo slow and spatially heterogeneous crystal growth. The cooperative multi-body type attractive forces were proposed to explain the unusual stability at low effective volume fraction. Ion-dipole interactions were proposed to be the origin of the attractive forces. The melting point of bulk crystals at this pH regime is much higher than the volume phase transition temperature of the building block. These results are supportive of the attractive forces hypothesis.

Two force fields, the GROMOS53A5/53A6 (united atom) and the AMBER95 (all atom) parameter sets, coupled with partial atomic charges derived from quantum mechanical calculations were evaluated for their ability to reproduce the known crystalline forms of the polyols mannitol and sorbitol. The force fields were evaluated using molecular dynamics simulations at 10 K (which is akin to potential energy minimization) with the simulation cell lengths and angles free to evolve. Both force fields performed relatively poorly, not being able to simultaneously reproduce all of the crystal structures within a 5% deviation level. The parameter sets were then systematically optimized using sensitivity analysis, and a revised AMBER95 set was found to reproduce the crystal structures with less than 5% deviation from experiment. The stability of the various crystalline forms for each of the parameter sets (original and revised) was then assessed in extended MD simulations at 298 K and 1 bar covering 1 ns simulation time. The AMBER95 parameter sets (original and revised) were found to be effective in reproducing the crystal structures in these more stringent tests. Remarkably, the performance of the original AMBER95 parameter set was found to be slightly better than that of the revised set in these simulations at 298 K. The results of this study suggest that, whenever feasible, one should include molecular simulations at elevated temperatures when optimizing parameters. / Dutch Top Institute Pharma

Thermodynamically, native cellulose nano fibrils are more stable in an aggregated state. The aggregated state is however not useful from a material development perspective. Therefore much research has been done to stabilize the dispersal of the fibrils. One method to overcome this instability is by surface substitution of the O6 hydroxyl group with carboxylate groups, to make highly charged fibrils in aqueous solutions. It is therefore of much interest to understand the interaction of highly charged fibrils in aqueous solutions. In this study, we aim to model the interaction potential energy between native and surface modified cellulose nanofibrils in order to understand under what conditions the contribution from the dipole interactions can be neglected. To achieve this we propose to use a continuum electrostatic approach, modeling the electrostatic interactions as a function of the fibrils relative dipole orientation, separation, surface charge as well as ionic strength of the solution, by means of using the Poisson-Boltzmann equation.

In dieser Dissertation werden klassische und quantenmechanische Regenbögen in den Winkelverteilungen bei streifender Streuung (Einfallswinkeln ca. 1°) von schnellen Atomen (kinetische Energien im Bereich von keV) entlang niedrig indizierter Kristallrichtungen atomar ebener Festkörperoberflächen untersucht. Die Projektilatome werden dabei entlang der Atomketten der jeweiligen Kristallrichtung geführt (axiale Oberflächen-Gitterführung) und mit einem ortsauflösenden Detektor nachgewiesen. Die resultierenden Streuverteilungen zeigen Intensitätsmaxima, die aufgrund von Regenbogenstreuung entstehen. Über den Vergleich gemessener Regenbogenwinkel mit Trajektoriensimulationen wird das Projektilatom-Oberfläche-Potential untersucht. Für leichte Atome und Moleküle zeigen sich in den Intensitätsverteilungen sogenannte überzählige Regenbögen, die nur durch Interferenz von Materiewellen erklärbar sind. Mit sinkender Energie werden auch diskrete Bragg-Reflexe auflösbar, deren relative Intensität durch die Winkelpositionen der überzähligen Regenbögen bestimmt wird. Das entsprechende Beugungsmuster wird Quanten-Regenbogen genannt. Solche Quanteneffekte wurden bei der Streuung von Atomen mit Energien von einigen keV (De-Broglie-Wellenlänge 10^-4 nm) zuvor weder beobachtet noch erwartet, da eine Erhaltung der Kohärenz bisher ausgeschlossen schien. Die Abhängigkeit der Interferenzmuster von den Streubedingungen wurde detailliert untersucht, mit semiklassischen Näherungen beschrieben und Dekohärenzmechanismen identifiziert. Es wird gezeigt, dass Beugung schneller Atome aufgrund der interferometrischen Natur angewandt werden kann, um die Struktur der Oberfläche und das Wechselwirkungspotential mit bisher nicht erreichter Genauigkeit zu bestimmen. Die Anwendbarkeit dieser Methode wurde an verschiedenen Materialklassen und Adsorbat-Überstrukturen nachgewiesen. / This work is devoted to the study of classical and quantum mechanical rainbows in scattering distributions for grazing scattering (angles of incidence of about 1°) of fast atoms (kinetic energies in the keV range) along low indexed crystal directions of atomically flat solid surfaces. Projectile atoms are steered by strings of atoms of the respective crystal direction (axial surface channeling) and detected by means of a position-sensitive detector. The resulting scattering distributions show intensity maxima due to rainbow scattering. From the comparison of measured rainbow angles with trajectory simulations, projectile surface potentials are investigated. For light atoms and molecules, so-called “supernumerary rainbows” arise in the scattering distributions, which can be explained in terms of interference of matter waves only. With decreasing energy, discrete Bragg peaks appear. Their relative intensity depends on the angular positions of the supernumerary rainbows. The corresponding diffraction pattern is called “quantum surface rainbow”. Such quantum phenomena for scattering of atoms with keV energies (de Broglie wavelength 10^-4 nm) were neither experimentally observed nor predicted, since a persistence of coherence seemed to be impossible. The dependence of the interference patterns on the scattering conditions are investigated in detail, described by semiclassical approximations, and decoherence mechanisms are identified. It is shown that due to its interferometric nature “Fast Atom Diffraction” can be used to deduce the structure of surfaces and the interaction potential with unprecedented accuracy. The feasibility of this method is demonstrated for different classes of materials and superstructures of adsorbates on metal surfaces.

Rural accessibility is a pressing issue in many parts of the world. Improved geographical accessibility to basic social service facilities for rural populations is a goal of most governments in developing countries. Development of a trail-based transport system is a key way to improve rural accessibility in mountainous and rugged terrain where trails criss-cross with numerous rivers. The present study focuses on Nepal, a developing country with rural accessibility challenges and a very challenging physical environment. This thesis reviews the existing accessibility patterns in rural areas of Nepal and proposes various approaches for identifying poorly served geographical areas and optimizing of location of additional new trail bridges to provide “best” links to social services. The methodology in this study is based on the concept of the gravity-based spatial interaction and accessibility models. GIS applications are used in different ways, such as in creating, acquiring, integrating spatial and attribute datasets, and spatial analysis and visualization of the output results. Amongst the different types of social services, health care and education centers are considered the most pressing services and hence are the objects of analysis. The main difference between health care service centers and educational facilities is that schools are usually very widespread across the district and serve for the school age population. Health service centers are sparsely and inequitably distributed, however, they serve the whole population at large. The results of the analysis show a fairly clear indication of problems relating to rural transport and access to social service centers in rural Nepal. This is attributed, in part, due to insufficient provision of social service centers and the lack of trail bridges over river crossing locations. The estimated numbers of trips over potential new bridges based on spatial integration modeling provides a basis for prioritization of river crossing locations for allocation of new trail bridges. The poorly served areas across the study district are identified on the basis of the results of the potential accessibility modeling. The trail network nodes with relatively low accessibility values are of prime concern and the subject of contemplation in the trail bridge planning decision-making process.

Rural accessibility is a pressing issue in many parts of the world. Improved geographical accessibility to basic social service facilities for rural populations is a goal of most governments in developing countries. Development of a trail-based transport system is a key way to improve rural accessibility in mountainous and rugged terrain where trails criss-cross with numerous rivers. The present study focuses on Nepal, a developing country with rural accessibility challenges and a very challenging physical environment. This thesis reviews the existing accessibility patterns in rural areas of Nepal and proposes various approaches for identifying poorly served geographical areas and optimizing of location of additional new trail bridges to provide “best” links to social services. The methodology in this study is based on the concept of the gravity-based spatial interaction and accessibility models. GIS applications are used in different ways, such as in creating, acquiring, integrating spatial and attribute datasets, and spatial analysis and visualization of the output results. Amongst the different types of social services, health care and education centers are considered the most pressing services and hence are the objects of analysis. The main difference between health care service centers and educational facilities is that schools are usually very widespread across the district and serve for the school age population. Health service centers are sparsely and inequitably distributed, however, they serve the whole population at large. The results of the analysis show a fairly clear indication of problems relating to rural transport and access to social service centers in rural Nepal. This is attributed, in part, due to insufficient provision of social service centers and the lack of trail bridges over river crossing locations. The estimated numbers of trips over potential new bridges based on spatial integration modeling provides a basis for prioritization of river crossing locations for allocation of new trail bridges. The poorly served areas across the study district are identified on the basis of the results of the potential accessibility modeling. The trail network nodes with relatively low accessibility values are of prime concern and the subject of contemplation in the trail bridge planning decision-making process.

In meiner Doktorarbeit untersuche ich ein Kac-artiges Vielteilchen-Modell, das eine Beschreibung von plastischen Verformungen ohne Verwendung einer Referenz-Konfiguration ermöglicht. Im Rahmen des Modells wird die Verformung eines Körpers durch Angabe von Atompositionen beschrieben. Es wird eine Mesoskala zwischen der Mikroskala der Atom-Atom Abstände und der Makroskala des Körpers eingeführt. Um jeden Punkt wird die Konfiguration auf dieser Mesoscala mit einem Bravais-Gitters approximiert. Die Matrix, die dieses Gitter aufspannt, wird als Argument eines elastischen Energiefunktionals verwendet. Auf diese Weise wird ein Energiefunktional definiert, das die Eigenschaften des Systems festlegt. Im Ersten Teil meiner Doktorarbeit analysiere ich das Modell im Fall das eine Referenz-Konfiguration lokal existiert. Ich schätze die Energiedichte einer solchen Konfiguration mit einer Störungsrechung von oben ab und erhalte eine obere Schranke für die Energiebarriere für plastische Relaxation in zwei Dimensionen. Im zweiten Teil untersuche ich Möglichkeiten Lagrange-Koordinaten im Rahmen des Modells zu konstruieren. Ich beweise, dass für zwei Punkte deren Abstand klein genug sind und die bestimmte Regularitätseigenschaften erfüllen, die Gitterparameter der approximierenden Bravais-Gitter bis auf eine Reparametrisierung nahe beieinander liegen müssen. Dies erlaubt diskrete Ketten von regulären Punkten zur Definition von Homotopieklassen zu benutzen die mit verallgemeinerten Burgers-Vektoren charakterisiert werden. Es ist mit dieser Technik auch möglich die Kernenergie von Versetzungen nach unten abzuschätzen. Schließlich passe ich eine Methode kontinuierliche Lagrange-Koordinaten, die von L. Mugnai und S. Luckhaus entwickelt wurden, an das Model an und verbessere sie dergestalt, dass ich die Energiedichte mit Hilfe eines Funktionales der Lagrange-Koordinaten nach unten abschätzen kann. / I study a Kac-type many particle model that allows a reference-free description of plastic deformation.In the framework of the model the state of the body is given by a set of atom position. The typical atom-atom distance is the microscopic scale. The size of the body is the macroscopic scale. Around each point a lattice is fitted to the configuration on a mesoscopic scale. The lattice parameters are used as an argument of a non-linear elasticity energy functional. Hence, this procedure allows to define an free-energy functional of a particle configuration. In the first part of my thesis I analyze the model in the case that a reference configuration exists locally. I bound the energy-density of such a configuration from above with a pertubative calculation and obtain an upper bound for the energy barrier of plastic deformation for dimension two. In the second part I explore the possibility to construct Lagrangian coordinates in the framework of the model. I prove that for two points that are close to each other and that fulfill certain regularity assumptions the fitted lattice parameters are close to each other up to a reparametrisation. This allows to use discrete chains of regular points for homotopy type arguments and define a generalized Burgers vector as a topological quantity. I also use this method to get a lower bound for the core energy of a dislocation. Finally, I adapt a method to construct continuous Lagrangian coordinates presented in by L.Mugnai and S.Luckhaus to my model and improve it to a point where I can use a functional of these Lagrangian coordinate as a lower bound for the energy of the model.

L'un des principaux domaines de recherche en chimie et en ingénierie chimique implique l'utilisation de liquides ioniques et de nanomatériaux comme alternatives à de nombreux produits chimiques et processus chimiques, comme ce dernier étant actuellement considérés comme non respectueux de l'environnement. Leur utilisation potentiel comme nouveaux fluides de transfert de chaleur et matériaux de stockage de chaleur, qui peuvent obéir à la plupart des principes de la chimie verte, nécessite l'étude expérimentale et théorique des mécanismes de transfert de chaleur dans les fluides complexes comme les ionanofluides. Le but de cette thèse était d'étudier les ionanofluides, qui consistent en la dispersion de nanomatériaux dans un liquide ionique.Le premier objectif de ce travail était de mesurer les propriétés thermophysiques des liquides ioniques et ionanofluides, à savoir la conductivité thermique, la viscosité, la densité et la capacité thermique dans une gamme de température comprise entre -10 et 150 ºC et à pression atmosphérique. Dans ce sens, les propriétés thermophysiques d'un ensemble considérable de liquides ioniques et d'ionanofluides ont été mesurées, avec un accent particulier sur la conductivité thermique des fluides. Les liquides ioniques étudiés étaient [C2mim][EtSO4], [C4mim][(CF3SO2)2N], [C2mim][N(CN)2], [C4mim][N(CN)2], [C4mpyr][N(CN)2], [C2mim][SCN], [C4mim][SCN], [C2mim][C(CN)3], [C4mim][C(CN)3], [P66614][N(CN)2], [P66614][Br] et leurs suspensions avec 0.5% et 1% w/w de nanotubes de carbone multi-parois (MWCNTs - de l'anglais multi-walled carbon nanotubes). Les résultats obtenus montrent qu'il y a une augmentation substantielle de la conductivité thermique du fluide de base due à la suspension du nanomatériau, en considérant les deux fractions massiques. Cependant, l'amélioration varie de manière significative lorsqu'on considère différents liquides ioniques de base, avec une gamme comprise entre 2 et 30%, avec une température croissante. Ce fait rend plus difficile l'unification des informations obtenues afin d'obtenir un modèle permettant de prédire l'amélioration de la conductivité thermique. Les modèles actuellement utilisé pour calculer la conductivité thermique des nanofluides présentent des valeurs considérablement sous-estimées par rapport aux valeurs expérimentales, en partie à cause des considérations sur le rôle de l'interface solide-liquide sur le transport de la chaleur.En ce qui concerne la densité, l'impact de l'ajout de MWCNTs sur la densité du fluide de base est très faible, variant entre 0.25% et 0.5% pour 0.5% w/w et 1% w/w MWCNTs, respectivement. Cela était assez attendu et est dû à la différence considérable de densité entre les deux types de matériaux. Cependant, la viscosité était la propriété pour laquelle les valeurs les plus élevées d' augmentation ont été vérifiées, allant de 28 à 245% pour les deux fractions massiques de MWCNT. La capacité calorifique était la seule des quatre propriétés mentionnées ci-dessus à ne pas être étudiée dans ce travail en raison de problèmes techniques avec le calorimètre à utiliser. Néanmoins, la quantité de données recueillies sur les propriétés thermophysiques restantes était extensif. On pense que ce dernier contribue de manière significative à une base de données croissante des propriétés des liquides ioniques et des ionanofluides, tandis que en fournissant un aperçu de la variation des propriétés obtenues à partir de la suspension de MWCNTs dans des liquides ioniques.(...) / One of the main areas of research in chemistry and chemical engineering involves the use of ionic liquids and nanomaterials as alternatives to many chemical products and chemical processes, as the latter are currently considered to be environmentally non-friendly. Their possible use as new heat transfer fluids and heat storage materials, which can obey to most principles of green chemistry or green processing, requires the experimental and theoretical study of the heat transfer mechanisms in complex fluids, like the ionanofluids.
It was the purpose of this dissertation to study ionanofluids, which consist on the dispersion of nanomaterials in an ionic liquid.The first objective of this work was to measure thermophysical properties of ionic liquids and ionanofluids, namely thermal conductivity, viscosity, density and heat capacity in a temperature range between -10 e 150 ºC 
and at atmospherical pressure. In this sense, the thermophysical properties of a considerable set of ionic liquids and ionanofluids were measured, with particular emphasis on the thermal conductivity of the fluids. The ionic liquids studied were [C2mim][EtSO4], [C4mim][(CF3SO2)2N], [C2mim][N(CN)2], [C4mim][N(CN)2], [C4mpyr][N(CN)2], [C2mim][SCN], [C4mim][SCN], [C2mim][C(CN)3], [C4mim][C(CN)3], [P66614][N(CN)2], [P66614][Br] and their suspensions with 0.5% and 1% w/w of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The results obtained show that there is a substantial enhancement of the thermal conductivity of the base fluid due to the suspension of the nanomaterial, considering both mass fractions. However, the enhancement varies significantly when considering different base ionic liquids, with a range between 2 to 30%, with increasing temperature. This fact makes it more difficult to unify the obtained information in order to obtain a model that allows predicting the enhancement of the thermal conductivity. Current models used to calculate the thermal conductivity of nanofluids present values that are considerably underestimated when compared to the experimental ones, somewhat due to the considerations on the role of the solid-liquid interface on heat transport.Considering density, the impact from the addition of MWCNTs on the base fluid’s density is very low, ranging between 0.25% and 0.5% for 0.5% w/w and 1% w/w MWCNTs, respectively. This was fairly expected and is due to the considerable difference in density between both types of materials. However, viscosity was the property for which the highest values of enhancement were verified, ranging between 28 and 245% in both mass fractions of MWCNTs. The heat capacity was the only of the four properties mentioned above not to be studied in this work due to technical issues with the calorimeter to be used. Nevertheless, the amount of data collected on the remainder thermophysical properties was extensive. It is believed that the latter contributes meaningfully to a growing database of ionic liquids and ionanofluids’ properties, while providing insight on the variation of said properties obtained from the suspension of MWCNTs in ionic liquids.The second objective of this work consisted on the development of molecular interaction models between ionic liquids and highly conductive nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets. These models were constructed based on quantum calculations of the interaction energy between the ions and a cluster, providing interaction potentials. Once these models were obtained, a second stage on this computational approach entailed to simulate, by Molecular Dynamics methods, the interface nanomaterial/ionic liquid, in order to understand the specific interparticle/molecular interactions and their contribution to the heat transfer. This would allow to study both structural properties, such as the ordering of the ionic fluid at the interface, and dynamic ones, such as residence times and diffusion. (...)