title: Mixed brush made of 4-arm stars and linear chains: MD simulations.
abstract: We investigate the structural properties of binary polymer brushes, composed of functional 4-armed star polymers and chemically identical linear polymers of different molecular weights. The molecular dynamics simulations confirm recent self-consistent field studies, in which a considerable potential of these systems for the design of switchable surfaces has been claimed. The length of the linear chains serves as a control parameter, which, while passing over a critical value, induces a sharp transition of the molecular conformation. We investigate these transitions at different grafting densities and summarize our findings in a phase diagram. The temperature dependence of the brush structure is investigated in a non-selective solvent, and non-trivial variations of the surface composition are observed. The quantity of these latter effects would be insufficient to build switchable systems, and we argue that a minor quantity of solvent selectivity would suffice to enable the desired feature of an environment-responsive coating.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Biomimetics and Soft Matter, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Soft Functional Materials Research, Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
authors.forename: Chan-Fei
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Biomimetics and Soft Matter, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Soft Functional Materials Research, Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Merlitz
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Biomimetics and Soft Matter, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Soft Functional Materials Research, Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
authors.forename: Chen-Xu
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens-Uwe
authors.initials: JU
authors.lastname: Sommer