title: PEG polymer brushes via the Langmuir-Schaefer technique: the transfer ratio.
abstract: The Langmuir-Schaefer technique allows horizontal transfer of monolayer films of amphiphilic molecules from an air-water interface to a hydrophobic solid substrate. Spectroscopic ellipsometry has been used to estimate the transfer ratio of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) polymer brushes prepared by this Langmuir-Schaefer method. We measured the transfer ratio for various degrees of polymerization and surface densities at the air-water interface. We do not observe a significant change of transfer ratio with the degree of polymerization. We also show that the transfer ratio is lower from an air-water monolayer film in the liquid phase than from a monolayer in the solid phase. Control over the transfer ratio is a crucial step in many experiments since the efficacy of the repression of proteins depends strongly on the assumption of the characteristics of the brushes.
authors: Département de Physique, Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors: Nicolas
authors: N
authors: Brouette
authors: Michele
authors: M
authors: Sferrazza