Adsorption of comb copolymers on weakly attractive solid surfaces

Abstract

In this work continuum and lattice Monte Carlo simulation methods are used to study the adsorption of linear and comb polymers on flat surfaces. Selected polymer segments, located at the tips of the side chains in comb polymers or equally spaced along the linear polymers, are attracted to each other and to the surface via square-well potentials. The rest of the polymer segments are modeled as tangent hard spheres in the continuum model and as self-avoiding random walks in the lattice model. Results are presented in terms of segment-density profiles, distribution functions, and radii of gyration of the adsorbed polymers. At infinite dilution the presence of short side chains promotes the adsorption of polymers favoring both a decrease in the depletion-layer thickness and a spreading of the polymer molecule on the surface. The presence of long side chains favors the adsorption of polymers on the surface, but does not permit the spreading of the polymers. At finite concentration linear polymers and comb polymers with long side chains readily adsorb on the solid surface, while comb polymers with short side chains are unlikely to adsorb. The simple models of comb copolymers with short side chains used here show properties similar to those of associating polymers and of globular proteins in aqueous solutions, and can be used as a first approximation to investigate the mechanism of adsorption of proteins onto hydrophobic surfaces.

Scaling Aspects of Block Co-Polymer Adsorption on Curved Surfaces from Nonselective Solvents

“…These results were further confirmed by numerical studies regarding the adsorption of short copolymers. [43][44][45] In the current work, we extend the geometric-based scaling of the adsorption of homo-polymers to diblock copolymers, as a generalization of our previous work. 33 We employ the experimental results described in this work to develop an interpolation equation that describes diblock copolymer adsorption on spherical particles.…”

A computational study of surface-directed phase separation in polymer blends under temperature gradient

“…Several techniques have been used to theoretically analyze the nature of polymer adsorption onto surfaces from bulk solution. Adsorption profiles close to adsorbing surfaces have been characterized by mean-field methods [81,82] in addition to using different simulation techniques [83][84][85][86]. The dynamics of polymer adsorption has also been examined by dynamic mean-field arrangements [87] along with dynamic Monte Carlo [88][89][90][91][92][93][94], molecular dynamics [95][96][97][98][99], and Brownian dynamics methods [100,101].…”

An Algorithm for Simulating Equilibrium Adsorption Characteristics of Branched Copolymer Chains at Solid‐Liquid Interface

“…In Sikorski's [7,8] work, simulations were done under athermal conditions and at extremely low polymer concentrations. Striolo et al [9] used an infinitely dilute continuum and a finite-concentration lattice Monte Carlo simulations to compute the adsorption of comb polymers, which possess selected segments that attract each other. Conducting Monte Carlo simulations become difficult as the complexity and the concentration of chains at the interface increases.…”