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Compression of Polymer Brushes Under a Lateral Force
Author(s) -
Amoskov Victor M.,
Birshtein Tatiana M.,
Darinskii Anatoly A.,
Tupitsyna Alla I.
Publication year - 2004
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/mats.200400016
Subject(s) - brush , polymer brush , polymer , materials science , shear (geology) , composite material , anisotropy , compression (physics) , shear force , surface forces apparatus , optics , polymerization , physics
Summary: The influence of a lateral force (or lateral shear) acting on chains in a polymer brush is investigated theoretically. Brushes consisting of chains with temperature dependent anisotropic interactions between monomers (main‐chain mesogenic groups) are considered. It is shown that a lateral force applied to polymer brush induces its compression. In contrast to a conventional brush, the compression of brush, capable of forming a liquid crystalline (LC) state, can be caused by comparatively small shear forces. Moreover, such shear forces can induce a phase transition of a brush into the tilted LC state with a several‐fold decrease in brush thickness. These results allow us to predict a possibility to observe a decrease in brush thickness in a real experiment with reasonably values of shear rate.Model of a chain in a polymer brush under an influence of lateral force p .