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Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory

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 t...

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Autores principales: Okrugin, Boris M., Richter, Ralf P., Leermakers, Frans A. M., Neelov, Igor M., Zhulina, Ekaterina B., Borisov, Oleg V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7240567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32295011
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12040898
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author Okrugin, Boris M.
Richter, Ralf P.
Leermakers, Frans A. M.
Neelov, Igor M.
Zhulina, Ekaterina B.
Borisov, Oleg V.
author_facet Okrugin, Boris M.
Richter, Ralf P.
Leermakers, Frans A. M.
Neelov, Igor M.
Zhulina, Ekaterina B.
Borisov, Oleg V.
author_sort Okrugin, Boris M.
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-72405672020-06-11 Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory Okrugin, Boris M. Richter, Ralf P. Leermakers, Frans A. M. Neelov, Igor M. Zhulina, Ekaterina B. Borisov, Oleg V. Polymers (Basel) Article 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. MDPI 2020-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7240567/ /pubmed/32295011 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12040898 Text en © 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/).
spellingShingle Article
Okrugin, Boris M.
Richter, Ralf P.
Leermakers, Frans A. M.
Neelov, Igor M.
Zhulina, Ekaterina B.
Borisov, Oleg V.
Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory
title Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory
title_full Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory
title_fullStr Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory
title_full_unstemmed Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory
title_short Electroresponsive Polyelectrolyte Brushes Studied by Self-Consistent Field Theory
title_sort electroresponsive polyelectrolyte brushes studied by self-consistent field theory
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7240567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32295011
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12040898
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