Premium
Collective dynamics of terminally anchored polymer chains
Author(s) -
Anastasiadis Spiros H.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.19991390104
Subject(s) - thermal fluctuations , wave vector , wavelength , amplitude , thermal , polymer , dynamic light scattering , brush , structure factor , evanescent wave , scattering , materials science , polymer brush , molecular dynamics , molecular physics , condensed matter physics , physics , optics , thermodynamics , nanotechnology , composite material , quantum mechanics , nanoparticle , polymerization
Thermal fluctuations of the segment density profile of a polymer brush were probed by dynamic light scattering in the evanescent wave configuration; the time correlation functions of concentration fluctuations with wavevector q were measured. It is found that there is a preferred wavelength of the order of the brush thickness, L 0 , of these fluctuations with a concurrent slowing down of their thermal decay rate. A theory is presented for the small‐amplitude deformation of the free surface of a parabolic brush in solution; a maximum in the respective structure factor of the concentration fluctuations is predicted at q * L 0 ∼ O (1), in agreement with the experiment.