https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2005-10122-7
Regular Article
Spontaneous bending of 2D molecular bottle-brush
1
Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, Moscow, Russia
2
Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Materials Science Centre, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen, The Netherlands
* e-mail: subbotin@ips.ac.ru
** e-mail: g.ten.brinke@rug.nl
Received:
15
December
2005
Accepted:
12
April
2006
Published online:
15
May
2006
Using a scaling approach we consider a 2D comb copolymer brush under bending deformations. We show that the rectilinear brush is locally stable and can be characterized by a persistence length λ increasing with the molecular weight of grafting side chains as λ ∼ M 3. A bending instability due to redistribution of the side chains appears in the non-linear regime where bending is strong. Arguments are presented that the brush conformations consist of alternating rectilinear and bent sections corresponding to the different free-energy minima.
PACS: 82.35.Jk Copolymers, phase transitions, structure – / 89.75.Fb Structures and organization in complex systems –
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2006