Electric field driven motion of single polyelectrolyte grafted colloids

在之前的应用阶段，我们开发了新的测量系统，首次使人们能够确定单一胶体在不同离子强度和价态的介质中的电泳迁移率(单胶体电泳法)。当前提议的目标是将这一方法扩展到单一聚电解质接枝胶体。这将使我们能够在良好控制的条件下(聚合物的分子量、接枝密度、离子在周围介质中的浓度和价态)详细地揭示接枝聚合物与外部电场之间的相互作用。之所以选择聚丙烯酸(PAA)和聚(2-乙烯基吡啶)(P2VP)作为DNA聚合物体系，是因为我们的团队在聚合物刷子之间的相互作用方面拥有精湛的专业知识。显然，这种方法有可能导致全新的测量系统，用于表征单一的、孤立的(聚合接枝的)胶体。

In the previous application period we have developed novel measurement systems which enable one – for the first time - to determine the electrophoretic mobility of single colloids in media of varying ionic strength and valency (Single-Colloid Electrophoresis (SCE)). It is the goal of the current proposal to extend this methodology to single polyelectrolyte–grafted colloids. This should allow us to unravel in detail the interaction between a grafted polymer with an external electric field under well controlled conditions (molecular weight of the polymers, grafting density, concentration and valency of the ions in the surrounding medium). As polymeric systems DNA, poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(2- vinylpyridine) (P2VP) are selected because with these systems our group has a refined expertise concerning the interacting between polymer-brushes. It is evident that this approach has the potential to lead to completely new measurement systems for the characterization of single, isolated (polymergrafted) colloids.