Okrugin, BM, Richter, RP orcid.org/0000-0003-3071-2837, Leermakers, FAM et al. (3 more authors) (2020) Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory. Polymers, 12 (4). 898.
Abstract
End-grafting of polyelectrolyte chains to conducting substrates offers an opportunity to fabricate electro-responsive surfaces capable of changing their physical/chemical properties (adhesion, wettability) in response to applied electrical voltage. We use a self-consistent field numerical approach to compare the equilibrium properties of tethered strong and weak (pH-sensitive) polyelectrolytes to applied electrical field in both salt-free and salt-containing solutions. We demonstrate that both strong and weak polyelectrolyte brushes exhibit segregation of polyions in two populations if the surface is oppositely charged with respect to the brush. This segregation gives rise to complex patterns in the dependence of the brush thickness on salt concentration. We demonstrate that adjustable ionization of weak polyelectrolytes weakens their conformational response in terms of the dependence of brush thickness on the amplitude of the applied voltage.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | smart interfaces; polyelectrolyte brushes; self-consistent field theory |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biomedical Sciences (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EU - European Union GA 306435 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Apr 2020 11:06 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/polym12040898 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:159549 |