Designed AB Copolymers as Efficient Stabilizers of Colloidal Particles

OE Perelstein and VA Ivanov and M Moller and II Potemkin, MACROMOLECULES, 43, 5442-5449 (2010).

DOI: 10.1021/ma100585g

We propose a model of amphiphilic AB copolymer which possesses low tendency toward intermolecular aggregation in selective solvent and high adsorption ability on solventphobic surfaces. The primary structure of the copolymer has elements of linear triblock copolymer. It contains solventphobic (A) and solventphilic (B) end-blocks and regularly alternating AB multiblock copolymer as a middle block which is surface- active. This block is localized at the core-corona interface of the micelle reducing the aggregation number. Kinetics of adsorption of the designed copolymer on planar solventphobic surface is compared with that of equivalent diblock copolymer. It is shown that even strong attraction of the molecules to the surface cannot destroy diblock copolymer micelles (at least during simulation time), whereas designed macromolecules form dense planar brush on the surface for a short enough time.

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