title: Dendritic brushes under good solvent conditions: a simulation study.
abstract: The structural properties of polymer brushes, formed by dendron polymers up to the third generation, were studied by means of Brownian dynamics simulations for the macroscopic state of good solvent. The distributions of polymer units, of the free ends, of the dendrons centers of mass, and of the units of every dendritic generation and the radii of gyration necessary for the understanding of the internal stratification of brushes were calculated. Previous self-consistent field theory numerical simulations of first-generation dendritic brushes suggested that at high grafting densities two kinds of populations are evident, one of short dendrons having weakly extended spacers and another with tall dendrons having strongly stretched spacers. These Brownian dynamics calculations provided a more complicated picture of dendritic brushes, revealing different populations of short, tall, and in some cases intermediate height dendrons, depending on the dendron generation and spacer length. The scaling dependence of the height and the span of the dendritic brush on the grafting density and other parameters were found to be in good agreement with existing theoretical results for good solvents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: Leonidas N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Gergidis
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalogirou
authors.forename: Costas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vlahos
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D050091:Dendrimers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D008970:Molecular Weight; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D050091:Dendrimers; D012997:Solvents