Polymers and surfactants at fluid interfaces studied with specular neutron reflectometry

Larissa Braun; Martin Uhlig; Regine von Klitzing; Richard A Campbell

doi:10.1016/j.cis.2017.07.005

Polymers and surfactants at fluid interfaces studied with specular neutron reflectometry

Adv Colloid Interface Sci. 2017 Sep:247:130-148. doi: 10.1016/j.cis.2017.07.005. Epub 2017 Jul 12.

Authors

Larissa Braun¹, Martin Uhlig², Regine von Klitzing¹, Richard A Campbell³

Affiliations

¹ TU Darmstadt, Center of Smart Interfaces, Department of Physics, Alarich-Weiss-Str. 10, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
² TU Berlin, Stranski-Laboratorium, Institute of Chemistry, Str. des 17. Juni 124, D-10623 Berlin, Germany.
³ Institut Laue-Langevin, 71 avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France.

PMID: 28822539
DOI: 10.1016/j.cis.2017.07.005

Abstract

This review addresses the advances made with specular neutron reflectometry in studies of aqueous mixtures of polymers and surfactants at fluid interfaces during the last decade (or so). The increase in neutron flux due to improvements in instrumentation has led to routine measurements at the air/water interface that are faster and involve samples with lower isotopic contrast than in previous experiments. One can now resolve the surface excess of a single deuterated component on the second time scale and the composition of a mixture on the minute time scale, and information about adsorption processes and dynamic rheology can also be accessed. Research areas addressed include the types of formed equilibrium surface structures, the link to foam film stability and the range of non-equilibrium effects that dominate the behavior of oppositely charged polyelectrolyte/surfactant mixtures, macroscopic film formation in like-charged polymer/surfactant mixtures, and the properties of mixtures of bio-polymers with surfactants and lipids.

Keywords: Fluid Interfaces; Neutron reflectometry; Polyelectrolytes; Polymers; Surfactants.

Publication types

Review