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Pulling Single Chains out of a Collapsed Polymer Monolayer in Bad-Solvent Conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

Vasileios Koutsos ,
Heiko Haschke ,
Mervyn J. Miles  and
Frédéric Madani
Vasileios Koutsos
Affiliation:
Institute for Materials and Processes, School of Engineering and Electronics & Centre for Materials Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JL, UK
Heiko Haschke
Affiliation:
H. H. Wills Physics Lab, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK
Mervyn J. Miles
Affiliation:
H. H. Wills Physics Lab, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK
Frédéric Madani
Affiliation:
Institute for Materials and Processes, School of Engineering and Electronics & Centre for Materials Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JL, UK
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Abstract

It has been theoretically predicted that a polymer chain in poor solvent conditions undergoes a phase transition from a collapsed globule to a stretched coil. In this paper, we present force-distance curves, obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM), showing the characteristic forceplateau associated with this transition. We show that the magnitude of the force depends on the environment (interfacial energy) that the stretched coil experiences when it is pulled-out as it is predicted by the theory.

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References

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