Strong-stretching and Scheutjens–Fleer descriptions of grafted polymer brushes
- 1 January 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Journal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transactions
- Vol. 86 (9) , 1349-1353
- https://doi.org/10.1039/ft9908601349
Abstract
The analytical theory of the conformations of end-grafted polymer ‘brushes’ is compared to direct numerical solutions of the mean-field equations developed by Scheutjens and Fleer. For moderately large chain length N, the predicted distribution of chain free ends and parabolic monomer density profile are confirmed in detail. The size (≈N1/3) and shape of corrections to the monomer density profile for finite N have been determined theoretically and are compared to numerical profiles. The fluctuations of chain conformations about the most probable paths are analysed in terms of an analogy to motion in a quantum-mechanical harmonic oscillator, in good agreement with numerical results.Keywords
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