Interactions between polymer brushes in solvents of variable quality: a density functional theory study.
We present a density functional theory study of interactions between sterically stabilized colloidal particles in solvents of variable quality. Both flat and spherical polymer brushes are considered, as well as both monatomic and polymeric solvents. It is shown that the interaction between sterically stabilized particles can be tuned from repulsive to attractive by varying the solvent quality, the relative length of free and grafted chains, and by employing a mixed brush consisting of both well and poorly solvated chains.
Egorov
S A
SA
Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901, USA. sae6z@virginia.edu