Theory of Surface Deformations of Polymer Brushes in Solution

The excess free energy of small-amplitude deformations of a wet “parabolic” brush consisting of polymer chains attached to a solid plane by one end is calculated. The brush is swollen by a good (marginal) solvent. A generic deformation involving both compression normal to the grafting surface and la...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Macromolecules 1999-05, Vol.32 (10), p.3474-3480
Main Authors: Likhtman, A. E, Anastasiadis, S. H, Semenov, A. N
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The excess free energy of small-amplitude deformations of a wet “parabolic” brush consisting of polymer chains attached to a solid plane by one end is calculated. The brush is swollen by a good (marginal) solvent. A generic deformation involving both compression normal to the grafting surface and lateral shear is considered. It is shown that the free energy attains a minimum as a function of the wave vector of the deformation, q. A shallow maximum of the scattering function S(q) is thus predicted. The theoretical scattering functions calculated for an arbitrary orientation of the scattering vector are compared with evanescent-wave light scattering data.
ISSN:0024-9297
1520-5835
DOI:10.1021/ma980572s