Faculty Profiles

Michael Rubinstein
Michael Rubinstein
Professor of Chemistry
Office: 
Hudson Hall, Rm. 144, Box 90300, Durham, NC 27708
Phone: 
(919) 660-5365
michael.rubinstein@duke.edu
Rubinstein Lab
Research Interests: 

The research of the Rubinstein group is in the field of polymer theory and computer simulations. The unique properties of polymeric systems are due to the size, topology and interactions of the molecules they are made of. Our goal is to understand the properties of various polymeric systems and to design new systems with even more interesting and useful properties.

Our approach is based upon building and solving simple molecular models of different polymeric systems. The models we develop are simple enough to be solved either analytically or numerically, but contain the main features leading to unique properties of real polymers. Computer simulations of our models serve as an important bridge between analytical calculations and experiments.

Overview

Education:

Ph.D., Harvard University 1983

Huang, Q., et al. “Unexpected Stretching of Entangled Ring Macromolecules.” Physical Review Letters, vol. 122, no. 20, May 2019, p. 208001. Epmc, doi:10.1103/physrevlett.122.208001. Full Text

Wang, S., et al. “Quantitative Adjustment to the Molecular Energy Parameter in the Lake-Thomas Theory of Polymer Fracture Energy.” Macromolecules, vol. 52, no. 7, Apr. 2019, pp. 2772–77. Scopus, doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.8b02341. Full Text

Galati, Elizabeth, et al. “Helicoidal Patterning of Nanorods with Polymer Ligands.” Angewandte Chemie (International Ed. in English), vol. 58, no. 10, Mar. 2019, pp. 3123–27. Epmc, doi:10.1002/anie.201812887. Full Text

Ge, Ting, and Michael Rubinstein. “Mobility of Polymer-Tethered Nanoparticles in Unentangled Polymer Melts.” Macromolecules, vol. 52, no. 4, Feb. 2019, pp. 1536–45. Epmc, doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.8b02138. Full Text

Button, Brian, et al. “Roles of mucus adhesion and cohesion in cough clearance.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 115, no. 49, Dec. 2018, pp. 12501–06. Epmc, doi:10.1073/pnas.1811787115. Full Text

Rubinstein, Michael, et al. “Structure of Liquid Coacervates formed by Oppositely Charged Polyelectrolytes.” Macromolecules, vol. 51, no. 23, Dec. 2018, pp. 9572–88. Epmc, doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.8b02059. Full Text

Shi, Ran, et al. “Elastic-Plastic Transformation of Polyelectrolyte Complex Hydrogels from Chitosan and Sodium Hyaluronate.” Macromolecules, vol. 51, no. 21, Nov. 2018, pp. 8887–98. Epmc, doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.8b01658. Full Text

Ge, Ting, et al. “Nanorheology of Entangled Polymer Melts.” Physical Review Letters, vol. 120, no. 5, Feb. 2018, p. 057801. Epmc, doi:10.1103/physrevlett.120.057801. Full Text

Zhou, Jinsheng, et al. “Enhanced nanochannel translocation and localization of genomic DNA molecules using three-dimensional nanofunnels.” Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 1, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Dec. 2017. Crossref, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00951-4. Full Text

Peters, Brandon L., et al. “Polymers at Liquid/Vapor Interface.” Acs Macro Letters, vol. 6, no. 11, American Chemical Society (ACS), Nov. 2017, pp. 1191–95. Crossref, doi:10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b00466. Full Text

Pages

Rubinstein, Michael. “Theoretical Challenges in Polymer Dynamics.” Theoretical Challenges in the Dynamics of Complex Fluids, edited by T. McLeish, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997, pp. 21–51.

Lopez, Gabriel, et al. “Programming molecular self-assembly of intrinsically disordered proteins.” Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society, vol. 251, AMER CHEMICAL SOC, 2016.

Rubinstein, Michael. “Polymer physics-The ugly duckling story: Will polymer physics ever become a part of “proper” physics?” Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, vol. 48, no. 24, Wiley, 2010, pp. 2548–51. Crossref, doi:10.1002/polb.22135. Full Text

Rubinstein, Michael, and Audrey V. Dobrynin. “Associations leading to formation of reversible networks and gels.” Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science, vol. 4, no. 1, Elsevier BV, Feb. 1999, pp. 83–87. Crossref, doi:10.1016/s1359-0294(99)00013-8. Full Text