2009/02/12 by Friederike Schmid, Schmid, Friederike
Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Block Copolymer Self-Assembly #FOS: Physical sciences #Polymer Surface Interaction Studies #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Surfactants and Colloidal Systems #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0902.2080
Invited feature article, to appear in Macromolecular Rapid Communications
openalex publication_date 2009/02/12 · arxiv created 2009/02/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Generic coarse-grained models are designed such that they are (i) simple and (ii) computationally efficient. They do not aim at representing particular materials, but classes of materials, hence they can offer insight into universal properties of these classes. Here we review generic models for amphiphilic molecules and discuss applications in studies of self-assembling nanostructures and the local structure of bilayer membranes, i.e. their phases and their interactions with nanosized inclusions. Special attention is given to the comparison of simulations with elastic continuum models, which are, in some sense, generic models on a higher coarse-graining level. In many cases, it is possible to bridge quantitatively between generic particle models and continuum models, hence multiscale modeling works on principle. On the other side, generic simulations can help to interpret experiments by providing information that is not accessible otherwise.