Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-pwrkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-11T14:22:32.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Adsorption of Copolymer Chains at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces: The Effect of Sequence Distribution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2011

C. Yeung
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Anna C. Balazs
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261
David Jasnow
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Get access

Extract

The presence of copolymers at an interface between two immiscible fluids is crucial to such processes as emulsion stabilization and microemulsion formation [1]. Recently Marques and Joanny [2] and Garel et al. [3] have studied the behavior of a random copolymer at a liquid-liquid interface. However, the arrangement or sequence distribution of the monomers in a copolymer can vary widely from random to blocky or purely alternating. In this paper, we use both analytic arguments and molecular dynamics simulations to determine how the sequence distribution affects the adsorption and conformation of a single macromolecule at the boundary between two immiscible fluids [4]. In particular, we derive an expression for the free energy of a copolymer at the interface and compare the resulting predictions with the outcome of the simulations. Our findings yield design criteria for fabricating polymers that display the desired interfacial properties.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Hancock, R.I., Surfactants, Tadros, Th.F., Ed., Academic Press: New York, 1984, p. 287.Google Scholar
2. Marques, C.M., Joanny, J.F., Macromolecules 1990, 23, 268.Google Scholar
3. Garel, T., Huse, D.A., Leibler, S., Orland, H., Europhys. Lett. 1989, 8, 13.Google Scholar
4. Yeung, C., Balazs, A.C. and Jasnow, D., Macromolecules, in press.Google Scholar
5. Imry, Y., Ma, S.K., Phys. Rev. Lett., 1975, 35, 1399.Google Scholar
6. Rouse, P.E., J. Chem. Phys., 1953, 21, 1272.Google Scholar