A Unified Theoretical and Experimental Approach to Polymer Adsorption on Charged Surfaces

这个项目是关于聚合物胶束在表面吸附的统一的理论和实验研究。聚合物胶束外部由多酸组成，可以对溶液pH和/或离子强度的变化做出反应。人们已经发现，这两个参数控制着聚合物胶束附着在胺化表面的密度，但这种控制的确切机制尚不清楚。该项目的实验方面将包括(1)通过阴离子聚合合成各种嵌段共聚物，控制疏水和亲水嵌段的长度；(2)由这些共聚物形成的胶束的制备和表征；(3)在不同的pH和离子强度条件下，将这些胶束附着到胺化或其他改性的表面上，并对表面进行表征。该项目的理论方面将扩展目前对聚电解质刷子的理解，以及链扭曲和能量有利的酸碱相互作用之间的竞争。理论上的进展将被用来指导实验，实验结果和实验结果将被用来检验理论的预测。除了对这些新结构的内在兴趣之外，该项目可能会在细胞与表面黏附的控制、药物输送、化学传感和光学数据存储等领域带来有价值的进展。

9973300WebberThis project is a unified theoretical and experimental study of the adsorption of polymer micelles at surfaces. The polymer micelle exterior is made up of polyacids which can respond to changes in solution pH and/or ionic strength. It has been found that these two parameters control the density of polymer micelle attachment to an aminated surface, but the exact mechanism for this control is not understood. Experimental aspects of the project will include (1) synthesis of various block copolymers by anionic polymerization, with control of the lengths of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic blocks; (2) preparation and characterization of micelles formed by these copolymers; (3) attachment of these micelles to aminated or other modified surfaces under various pH and ionic strength conditions and characterization of the surfaces. Theoretical aspects of the project will extend the current understanding of polyelectrolyte brushes and the competition between chain distortion and energetically favorable acid-base interactions. Advances in theory will be used to help guide experiment and the results of experiment and the results of experiment will be used to test the predictions of theory.Besides the intrinsic interest in these novel structures, the project may lead to valuable advance the fields of, control of cell adhesion to surfaces, drug delivery, chemical sensing, and optical data storage.