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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 8: Responsive and Adaptive Systems

CPP 8.4: Talk

Monday, March 27, 2023, 11:45–12:00, ZEU 255

Topology Impact on nanoscale hydration of polymer brushes — •Apostolos Vagias¹, Andrew Nelson², Peixi Wang³, Julija Reitenbach³, Christina Geiger³, Lucas Philipp Kreuzer^1,3, Thomas Saerbeck⁴, Robert Cubitt⁴, Edmondo Maria Benetti⁵, and Peter Müller-Buschbaum^1,3 — ¹MLZ, TUM, Garching — ²ANSTO, Sydney, Australia — ³TUM School of Natural Sciences, Chair for Functional Materials, Garching — ⁴ILL, Grenoble, France — ⁵Polymer Surfaces Group, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Polymer brushes have demonstrated growing interest during last years, in particular in combination with exposure to aqueous environment. By utilizing time-of-flight neutron reflectometry (ToF-NR), we correlate the swelling properties of hydrophilic cyclic grafted polymer brushes to their thermodynamics. Cyclic brushes exhibit more compact conformations with lower roughness compared to their linear analogues, due to the absence of dangling chain ends extending at the interface. In addition, due to increased interchain steric repulsions, cyclic brushes feature larger swelling ratios at the same composition and comparable molar mass. Moreover, the two topologies exhibit differences in ageing, upon repetitive swelling/drying cycles. We present a case where current Flory-like expressions breakdown in the explanation of the experimental observations.