Polymer brushes under high load

Suzanne M Balko; Torsten Kreer; Philip J Costanzo; Tim E Patten; Albert Johner; Tonya L Kuhl; Carlos M Marques

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058392

Polymer brushes under high load

PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e58392. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058392. Epub 2013 Mar 13.

Authors

Suzanne M Balko¹, Torsten Kreer, Philip J Costanzo, Tim E Patten, Albert Johner, Tonya L Kuhl, Carlos M Marques

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA.

Abstract

Polymer coatings are frequently used to provide repulsive forces between surfaces in solution. After 25 years of design and study, a quantitative model to explain and predict repulsion under strong compression is still lacking. Here, we combine experiments, simulations, and theory to study polymer coatings under high loads and demonstrate a validated model for the repulsive forces, proposing that this universal behavior can be predicted from the polymer solution properties.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Computer Simulation
Friction*
Models, Theoretical*
Polymers* / chemistry
Stress, Mechanical*
Surface Properties*

Substances

Polymers

Grants and funding

The authors are grateful to O. Félix for QCM-D measurements. This research was supported primarily by the United States Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under award DE-FG02-06ER46340 (TLK, SMB & PJC). SMB thanks the Chateaubriand Fellowship (Paris, France) for partial financial support. TK thanks the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft (DFG) for financial support (DFG-KR 2854/3-1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.