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Authors Lang, M. ; Hoffmann, M. ; Dockhorn, R. ; Werner, M. ; Sommer, J.-U.
Title Fluctuation driven height reduction of crosslinked polymer brushes: A Monte Carlo study
Date 25.10.2013
Number 40624
Abstract We study the changes in the conformations of brushes upon the addition of crosslinks between the chains using the bond fluctuation model. The Flory-Rehner model applied to uniaxially swollen networks predicts a collapse for large degrees of crosslinking q proportional to q -1/3 in disagreement with our simulation data. We show that the height reduction of the brushes is driven by monomer fluctuations in a direction perpendicular to the grafting plane and not due to network elasticity. We observe that the impact of crosslinking is different for reactions between monomers of the same or on different chains. If the length reduction of the effective chain length due to both types of reactions is accounted for in a function ß(q), the height of the brush can be derived from a Flory approach for the equilibrium brush height leading to H(q) ˜ H b ß(q)1/3, whereby H b denotes the height of the non-crosslinked brush. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC
Publisher Journal of Chemical Physics
Wikidata 1
Citation Journal of Chemical Physics 139 (2013) 164903
DOI https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4825207
Tags molecular-dynamics simulation grafted polymers networks density adsorption diffusion surfaces forces point

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