title: Sharp and fast: sensors and switches based on polymer brushes with adsorption-active minority chains.
abstract: We propose a design for polymer-based sensors and switches with sharp switching transition and fast response time. The switching mechanism involves a radical change in the conformations of adsorption-active minority chains in a brush. Such transitions can be induced by a temperature change of only about ten degrees, and the characteristic time of the conformational change is less than a second. We present an analytical theory for these switches and support it by self-consistent field calculations and Brownian dynamics simulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, American University of Beirut, P.O. Box 11-0236, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Leonid I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Klushin
authors.affiliation: Chemical-Pharmaceutical Academy, Professora Popova 14, 197022 St. Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Skvortsov
authors.affiliation: Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of Russian Academy of Sciences, 31 Bolshoy prospekt, 199004 St. Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexey A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Polotsky
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physik, Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7-9, 55099 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Shuanhu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physik, Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7-9, 55099 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Friederike
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schmid
mesh_terms: D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers