Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 30: Complex Fluids, Colloids, Micelles and Vesicles I

CPP 30.5: Vortrag

Dienstag, 10. März 2026, 15:15–15:30, ZEU/0260

Influence of End Groups on the Aggregation of Polymers: A Neutron Scattering Study — •Jonathan Linus Samuel Garthe^1,2, Sylvain Prévost³, and Matthias Karg¹ — ¹Physical Chemistry of Functional Polymers, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany — ²Physical Chemistry: Colloids and Nanooptics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany — ³Large Scale Structures, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France

The solution structure of polymers depends strongly on polymer concentration, solvent quality, and molecular weight. Additionally the nature of chemically different terminal groups influences the phase behavior of polymers with strong differences depending on the average chain length. We investigated the solution behavior and the occurrence of micelle-like structures for (semi)-dilute solutions. We synthesized PNIPAM homopolymers that are hydrophobically terminated. Via aminolysis we also cleaved the hydrophobic end groups allowing for direct comparison of the same homopolymers with and without hydrophobic end group. Small-angle neutron scattering was used to study the structure of the polymers in solution. Our studies demonstrated that a subdominant micelle formation occurs for samples with molecular weights below 100 kDa. The aggregation number of these micelles scales inverse with the molecular weight. At low concentrations, these micelles exist as individual structures. Upon increasing the concentration micelles aggregate, leading to a distinct structure factor contribution in the scattering profile.

Keywords: small-angle neutron scattering; polymeric micelles; end group effects; thermoresponsive polymers