Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. AFM-based force spectroscopy reveals that the polymer brush adopts distinctively different interfacial conformations: swollen in water but collapsed in dodecane. Minimal surface adhesion was observed with both polymer conformations, which can be attributed to steric repulsion as the result of a swollen conformation in water or surface solvation when the hydrophobic fraction of the polymer was exposed to the dodecane.
The work brings additional insight on the polymer lubrication mechanism, which expands the possible design of the polymer architecture for interfacial lubrication and modification. Surface-grafted polymers are a commonly implemented strategy to render surface properties in effectively adjusting surface interactions by steric repulsion nonionic polymer and additional electrostatic interaction polyelectrolyte.
It is explained that the effective reduction in the sliding friction between two surfaces is due to a synergistic effect of resistance to penetration of the one surface into the polymers at the other contacting surface and the fluidity of these polymer brushes, which is a characteristic gained from the solvation layers surrounding the polymer brushes.
It was reported that the more solvent uptake from the polymer on the surface, the lower the Coefficient of Friction, 17 thus, demonstrating the importance of the swollen brush configuration in reducing friction. Using ionic liquids as lubricant additive is another strategy to reduce interfacial friction.
To combine the advantages offered by both surface grafted polymer brush and ionic liquid, poly ionic liquid s PILs have been developed as a novel platform for a wide range of applications such as thermoresponsive materials, CO 2 capture and separation, and biosensors.
