AI Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the structure of polystyrene "Guiselin" brushes at solid-polymer melt interfaces, revealing two distinct nanoarchitectures: a dense inner layer of flattened chains and a loosely packed outer layer.
- Characterization was conducted using x-ray and neutron reflectivity, demonstrating that the chains adjust and densify reversibly when exposed to elevated temperatures, up to 150 °C.
- The researchers suggest that this densification is linked to changes in the local conformations of polymer chains, specifically shifts between trans and gauche states, which affects the overall chain arrangement.
Article Abstract
We report the chain conformations of polymer molecules accommodated at the solid-polymer melt interfaces in equilibrium. Polystyrene "Guiselin" brushes (adsorbed layers) with different molecular weights were prepared on Si substrates and characterized by using x-ray and neutron reflectivity. The results are intriguing to show that the adsorbed layers are composed of the two different nanoarchitectures: flattened chains that constitute the inner higher density region of the adsorbed layers and loosely adsorbed polymer chains that form the outer bulklike density region. In addition, we found that the lone flattened chains, which are uncovered by the additional prolonged solvent leaching (∼120 days), are reversibly densified with increasing temperature up to 150 °C. By generalizing the chain conformations of bulks, we postulate that the change in probabilities of the local chain conformations (i.e., trans and gauche states) of polymer molecules is the origin of this densification process.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.265501 | DOI Listing |
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