Dresden 2003 – scientific programme

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SYSE: Simulation and experiment

SYSE 2: Poster (gemeinsam mit SYCN und CPP)

SYSE 2.10: Poster

Tuesday, March 25, 2003, 19:00–21:00, ZEU/250

Monte-Carlo-Simulations of the phase behaviour of polymer brushes — •Ludger Wenning, Marcus Müller, and Kurt Binder — Institut für Physik, Universität Mainz

A polymer brush in poor solvent is investigated by a Monte-Carlo-simulation of the bead-spring-model.
We observe the transition from a swollen, homogenous brush in a good solvent to a lateral structured cluster phase. This transition depends on the solvent quality and the surface coverage. Unlike the prediction of self-consistent field theory, the clusters do not form a hexagonal lattice, but rather arranges irregularly.
Further on the impact of the way of grafting is studied. Random grafting leads to slightly larger clusters, which are also more stable at better solvent quality. Moreover we demonstrate how the locations of the clusters correlate with density fluctuations in the grafting points.
Some structures found in a two-component brush are also shown. Due to the immobile grafting the two polymers cannot separate macroscopically, and micro-phase-separation occurs.