Neutron reflectivity and computer simulation studies of self-assembled brushes formed by centrally adsorbed star polymers

Ioannis Hiotelis, Alexandros G. Koutsioubas, Nikolaos Spiliopoulos, Dimitris L. Anastassopoulos, Alexandros A. Vradis, Chris Toprakcioglu*, Alain Menelle, George Sakellariou, Nikos Hadjichristidis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The equilibrium properties of polymer brushes formed by starlike polymers with varying number of arms attached to a surface by their center were studied experimentally with neutron reflectrometry (NR). Polystyrene (PS) stars in a good solvent (toluene) were centrally adsorbed onto a quartz substrate via a zwitterionic anchor group. Increasing the number of arms resulted in significantly lower equilibrium adsorbance, while replacement experiments of a 3-armed star brush by linear chains revealed interesting equilibrium and kinetic features related to the special architecture of star polymers. These results are compared with scaling theoretical calculations and Monte Carlo simulations of centrally adsorbed star polymers that were performed under the bond fluctuation simulation scheme. Several features of the experimental results are reproduced in our simulation study.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)7648-7655
Number of pages8
JournalMacromolecules
Volume41
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 28 2008
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Organic Chemistry
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Materials Chemistry

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