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Rigid-to-Flexible Transition in a Molecular Brush in a Good Solvent at a Semidilute Concentration.

Jia-Jhen KangClemens SachseChia-Hsin KoMartin A SchroerStefano Da VelaDmitry MolodenskiyJoachim KohlbrecherNikita V BushuevRustam A GumerovIgor I PotemkinRainer JordanChristine M Papadakis
Published in: Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids (2022)
The structures of a molecular brush in a good solvent are investigated using synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering in a wide range of concentrations. The brush under study, P i POx 239 - g -P n PrOx 14 , features a relatively long poly(2-isopropenyl-2-oxazoline) (P i POx) backbone and short poly(2- n -propyl-2-oxazoline) (P n PrOx) side chains. As a solvent, ethanol is used. By model fitting, the overall size and the persistence length as well as the interaction length and interaction strength are determined. At this, the interplay between form and structure factor is taken into account. The conformation of the molecular brush is traced upon increasing the solution concentration, and a rigid-to-flexible transition is found near the overlap concentration. Finally, the results of computer simulations of the molecular brush solutions confirm the experimental results.
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