Eur. Phys. J. E 4, 467-473

Entropically driven attraction between telechelic brushes

A.G. Zilman and S.A. Safran

Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel

anton.zilman@weizmann.ac.il

(Received 12 June 2000 and Received in final form 29 January 2001)

Abstract
We discuss the structure and the interaction of telechelic brushes. We show that the association of functionalized chain ends is capable of giving rise to attractive interactions between telechelic brush-covered surfaces, in contrast to conventional repulsion. Our predictions for the interaction free energy are in agreement with experimental data.

PACS
61.25.Hq - Macromolecular and polymer solutions; polymer melts; swelling.
67.70.+n - Films (including physical adsorption).
05.90.+m - Other topics in statistical physics, thermodynamics, and nonlinear dynamical systems.


© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2001