a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

Figure 2-34. Schematic view of different polymer types: (a) linear homopolymers that are
the main subject of this review, (b) branched polymers, (c) charged polymers or
polyelectrolytes (PEs), and (d) a disordered copolymer with no specific order of
xxxiii
the different monomers. ............................................................................................. 71
Figure 2-35. Schematic view of the four scaling ranges in the Gaussian-persistent
regime(Netz & Andelman, 2003)............................................................................... 72
Figure 2-36. Different possibilities of substrates: (a) the prototype, a flat, homogeneous
substrate; (b) a corrugated, rough substrate. Note that experimentally, every
substrate exhibits a certain degree of roughness on some length scale; (c) a
spherical adsorption substrate, such as a colloidal particle. If the colloidal radius
is much larger than the polymer size, curvature effects (which means the
deviation from the planar geometry) can be neglected; (d) a flat but chemically
heterogeneous substrate; ............................................................................................ 74
Figure 2-37. The ‘tail’, ‘train’ and ‘loop’ sections of the adsorbing chain ................................... 75
Figure 2-38. Schematic drawing of single-chain adsorption. (a) In the limit of strong
coupling, and (b) in the case of weak coupling.......................................................... 76
Figure 2-39. Macromolecule with a) small persistence length, b) medium persistence length,
and c) large persistence length ................................................................................... 77
Figure 2-40. Schematic picture of a) the adsorbed polymer layer when the effective
persistence length is large, (b) Adsorbed layer for the case when the persistence
length is small. In this case the polymer forms a random coil with many loops ....... 77
Figure 2-41. Deposition of layer in LbL process a) in the absence of salt and b) in the
presence of salt ........................................................................................................... 81
Figure 2-42. Surface charge in LbL process as a function of salt concentration(Schlenoff &
Dubas, 2001) .............................................................................................................. 82
Figure 2-43. Penetration of polyelectrolyte chain inward and outward of a multilayer film ....... 84
Figure 2-44. Deplacement of polyelectrolyte ions with salt counter-ions .................................... 86