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10:09
Fabricating Reactive Surfaces with Brush-like and Crosslinked Films of Azlactone-Functionalized Block Co-Polymers
Published on: June 30, 2018
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Interacting living polymers confined between two surfaces.
Nicolaas A M Besseling1, Alexander V Korobko
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 136, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands.
Physical Review Letters
|November 19, 2013
Summary
Solutions of living polymers confined between surfaces exhibit a dramatic transition when the gap narrows. Properties like the disjoining potential change significantly due to increased density and polymerization.
Area of Science:
- Soft Matter Physics
- Polymer Science
- Physical Chemistry
Background:
- Living polymers are dynamic systems capable of association and dissociation.
- Confining such solutions between surfaces introduces unique boundary effects.
- Understanding the equilibrium behavior and forces in confined polymer solutions is crucial for materials science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To predict the equilibrium behavior of living polymer solutions confined in a narrow gap.
- To calculate the disjoining potential (potential of mean force) between surfaces.
- To investigate the transition occurring upon narrowing the gap.
Main Methods:
- Extension of a self-consistent field-propagator formalism.
- Derivation of the formalism from a free-energy functional.
- Thermodynamic property evaluation, including the disjoining potential.
- Simulation of systems confined between two surfaces.
Main Results:
- A transition is observed upon narrowing the confinement gap.
- This transition involves a cooperative increase in local density and degree of polymerization.
- Properties such as the disjoining potential change by orders of magnitude at this transition.
Conclusions:
- The study provides predictions for confined living polymer solutions.
- A significant transition driven by density and polymerization changes is identified.
- The developed formalism allows for the evaluation of thermodynamic properties in confined systems.
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