Water is a Poor Solvent for Densely Grafted Poly(ethylene oxide) Chains: A Conclusion Drawn from a Self-Consistent Field Theory-Based Analysis of Neutron Reflectivity and Surface Pressure-Area Isotherm Data

Published

May 22, 2012

Author(s)

Hoyoung Lee, Dae Hwan Kim, Kevin N. Witte, Kimberly Ohn, Je Choi, Bulent Akgun, Sushil K. Satija, You-Yeon Won

Abstract

By using a combined experimental and theoretical approach, a model poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) brush system, prepared by spreading a poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PEO-PnBA) amphiphilic diblock copolymer onto an air-water interface, was investigated. The polymer segment density profiles of the PEO brush in the direction normal to the air-water interface under various grafting density conditions were determined by using the neutron reflectivity (NR) measurement technique. In order to achieve a theoretically sound analysis of the reflectivity data, we developed a new data analysis method that uses the self-consistent field (SCF) theoretical modeling as a tool for predicting expected reflectivity results for comparison with the experimental data. Using this new data analysis technique, we discovered that the effective Flory-Huggins interaction parameter of the PEO brush chains is significantly greater than that corresponding to the theta condition in Flory-Huggins solutions (ie., X_PEO-water)brush chains)/X_PEO-water(θ condition) = 0.92), the PEO chains are actually not ¿hydrophilic¿ when they exist as polymer brush chains, because of the many body interactions that are forced to be effective in the brush situation. This result is further supported by the fact that the surface pressures of the PEO brush calculated on the basis of the measured X_PEO-water value are in close agreement with the experimental surface pressure-area isotherm data. The SCF theoretical analysis of the surface pressure behavior of the PEO brush also suggest that even though the grafted PEO chains experience a poor solvent environment, the PEO brush layer exhibits positive surface pressures, because the hydrophobicity of the PEO brush chains (which favors compression) is insufficient to overcome the opposing effect of the chain conformational entropy (which resists compression).

Citation

Journal of Physical Chemistry B

Volume

116

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Polymer brushes, neutron reflectivity, langmuir monolayer, cluster theory, SCFT, PEO

Citation

Lee, H. , Kim, D. , Witte, K. , Ohn, K. , Choi, J. , Akgun, B. , Satija, S. and Won, Y. (2012), Water is a Poor Solvent for Densely Grafted Poly(ethylene oxide) Chains: A Conclusion Drawn from a Self-Consistent Field Theory-Based Analysis of Neutron Reflectivity and Surface Pressure-Area Isotherm Data, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=910992 (Accessed April 25, 2024)