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Influence of Rigid Side Chain Attraction on Stiffness and Conformations of Comb Copolymer Brushes Strongly Adsorbed on a Flat Surface
Author(s) -
Flikkema E.,
ten Brinke G.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
macromolecular theory and simulations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-3919
pISSN - 1022-1344
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3919(20020901)11:7<777::aid-mats777>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - side chain , copolymer , attraction , polymer , persistence length , chain (unit) , chemical physics , chemistry , monte carlo method , materials science , backbone chain , adsorption , polymer chemistry , composite material , physics , organic chemistry , mathematics , philosophy , linguistics , statistics , astronomy
The influence of side‐chain attraction on the conformational properties of two‐dimensional polymer brushes with rigid side chains is investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. Using a rigid backbone, a characteristic interaction strength is determined by investigating the critical interaction energy for the collapse of the side chains onto the backbone. For a flexible backbone, the persistence length of the backbone is found to decrease with increasing attraction, irrespective of whether side‐chain flipping is allowed or not. This result is in good agreement with the theoretical modeling presented before. If side‐chain flipping is allowed, the attraction between the side chains leads to aggregation of successive side chains at one side of the backbone resulting in a characteristic local spiraling of the backbone.