Direct Optical Observation of Interfacial Depletion Layers in Polymer Solutions

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Abstract
The excitation of fluorescently labeled polymer coils by shallow optical evanescent waves permits measurement of the local monomer solute concentration in the vicinity of a nonadsorbing wall over controlled, submicroscopic distances. The existence of a depletion layer at the solid-solution interface is thus demonstrated directly for the first time. The results obtained on a 103 000-molecular-weight polystyrene sample dissolved in ethyl acetate are in agreement with the entropic repulsion model.

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