29.06.2013 Views

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

a)<br />

b)<br />

Figure 2-38. Schematic drawing of single-chain adsorption. (a) In the limit of strong coupling,<br />

and (b) in the case of weak coupling<br />

Therefore, adsorption behavior of a neutral polymer chain is a result of a competition between<br />

the attractive potential and entropic repulsion. The former tries to bind the monomers to the<br />

substrate surface and the latter tries to maximize entropy.<br />

In the case of the adsorption of a single semi-flexible polyelectrolyte on an oppositely charged<br />

substrate, the adsorption process is a result of a balance between electrostatic repulsion of<br />

charged monomers, which leads to chain stiffening, and electrostatic attraction between substrate<br />

surface and polymer chain. It is much more complicated than the corresponding adsorption of<br />

neutral polymers because the driving force in this case is electrostatic potential. Due to electrical<br />

charges of polyelectrolytes, flexibility of the polyelectrolyte chains becomes an important factor<br />

in the adsorption of polyelectrolyte to the surface. In or<strong>de</strong>r to measure flexibility of a<br />

polyelectrolyte, the persistence length is <strong>de</strong>fined. Flexible chains have low persistence lengths<br />

while inflexible or rigid ones have high persistence lengths. Light scattering or viscosity<br />

measurements are performed to measure persistence length of polymers in dilute solutions.<br />

For charged polymers (polyelectrolytes) in the bulk, the effective persistence length is increased<br />

due to electrostatic repulsion between monomers. Polyelectolyte conformation is governed by<br />

intra-chain Coulombic repulsion between charged monomers. Expansion of chain structure due<br />

to increase of the persistence length is represented in Figures 39a, 39b, and 39c.<br />

In comparison with neutral polymers, this electrostatic repulsion results in a more exten<strong>de</strong>d and<br />

swollen conformation (Figure 2-39c).<br />

76

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!