Non-Equilibrium in Adsorbed Polymer Layers
| dc.creator | O'Shaughnessy, Ben | |
| dc.creator | Vavylonis, Dimitrios | |
| dc.date | 2004-07-09 | |
| dc.date | 2004-11-01 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T02:59:07Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T02:59:07Z | |
| dc.description | High molecular weight polymer solutions have a powerful tendency to deposit adsorbed layers when exposed to even mildly attractive surfaces. The equilibrium properties of these dense interfacial layers have been extensively studied theoretically. A large body of experimental evidence, however, indicates that non-equilibrium effects are dominant whenever monomer-surface sticking energies are somewhat larger than kT, a common case. Polymer relaxation kinetics within the layer are then severely retarded, leading to non-equilibrium layers whose structure and dynamics depend on adsorption kinetics and layer ageing. Here we review experimental and theoretical work exploring these non-equilibrium effects, with emphasis on recent developments. The discussion addresses the structure and dynamics in non-equilibrium polymer layers adsorbed from dilute polymer solutions and from polymer melts and more concentrated solutions. Two distinct classes of behaviour arise, depending on whether physisorption or chemisorption is involved. A given adsorbed chain belonging to the layer has a certain fraction of its monomers bound to the surface, f, and the remainder belonging to loops making bulk excursions. A natural classification scheme for layers adsorbed from solution is the distribution of single chain f values, P(f), which may hold the key to quantifying the degree of irreversibility in adsorbed polymer layers. Here we calculate P(f) for equilibrium layers; we find its form is very different to the theoretical P(f) for non-equilibrium layers which are predicted to have infinitely many statistical classes of chain. Experimental measurements of P(f) are compared to these theoretical predictions. | |
| dc.description | 29 pages, Submitted to J. Phys.: Condens. Matter | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0407246 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0407246 | |
| dc.identifier | J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 17 (2005) R63-R99 | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.1088/0953-8984/17/2/R01 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/24388 | |
| dc.subject | Soft Condensed Matter | |
| dc.subject | Statistical Mechanics | |
| dc.title | Non-Equilibrium in Adsorbed Polymer Layers | |
| dc.type | text |