Probing Collective Motions of Terminally Anchored Polymers
Polymer chains attached by one end to an impenetrable surface at high coverage exemplify a tethered layer of mesoscopic dimensions. At equilibrium, thermal fluctuations of the segment density profile of the brushlike layer reflect the tethered chain dynamics; the probing of these fluctuations by evanescent-wave dynamic light scattering is reported. By utilizing a set of terminally attached layers with thicknesses (L0) from 45 to 130 nanometers, it was found that there is a preferred wavelength of order L0 of these fluctuations with a concurrent slowing down of their thermal decay rate. This technique could open the route for the investigation of the largely unexplored area of polymer surface dynamics.
Fytas
G
Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, P.O. Box 1527, 711 10 Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
Anastasiadis
SH
Seghrouchni
R
Vlassopoulos
D
Li
J
Factor
BJ
Theobald
W
Toprakcioglu
C