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AFM Study on the Interactions Across Interfaces Containing Attached Polymer Chains
Author(s) -
Oréfice Rodrigo L.,
Clark Arthur E.,
Brennan Anthony B.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.200500322
Subject(s) - polymer , materials science , chemical physics , atomic force microscopy , nanotechnology , stress (linguistics) , composite material , chemical engineering , chemistry , linguistics , philosophy , engineering
Summary: Interactions between surfaces with attached polymers are very common in both biological and engineering fields. These types of interactions are critical in processes such as coagulation and flocculation in mineral processing, biological recognition in metabolic processes and stress transference in polymer composites, among others. Although many mechanisms have been proposed to explain phenomena occurring at the interfaces on a molecular level, few experimental procedures can give direct information about them. In this work, interactions occurring at interfaces containing attached polymer chains, such as the ones that are present in polymer composites, were studied by using AFM. In order to identify the effect of the structure of the interface on phenomena such as stress transference and energy dissipation, polymers with different molar mass, areal density and chemical architecture were synthesized and attached to substrates and AFM cantilevers. Force‐distance curves, obtained by AFM, provided some fundamental information about the mechanisms involved when polymers attached to different surfaces interact. Results showed that chains grafted on different surfaces can interact via entanglements and intersegmental bonding. Based upon the application of the AFM modified technique, interfaces containing polymers, such as in polymer composites, can be designed and optimized through the manipulation of its structure to achieve new roles in the performance of systems.