TY - JOUR
T1 - Local Disorder Facilitates Chain Stretching in Crowded Polymer Brushes
AU - Jin, Tiancheng
AU - Zha, Hao
AU - Randazzo, Katelyn
AU - Zuo, Biao
AU - Priestley, Rodney D.
AU - Wang, Xinping
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/9/17
Y1 - 2020/9/17
N2 - Intermolecular crowding of densely tethered polymers promotes chain extension and anisotropy that induces many unique properties. In this study, we used conformation-sensitive infrared spectroscopy to determine that chain extension in a polymer brush is associated with local conformation rearrangements, i.e., contraction of side groups and increased proportion of gauche twists in the backbone, which served to increase molecular disorder at or below the segmental scale. This conformational transition points to a particular molecular mechanism for chain extension in densely tethered polymers, wherein increased local disorder facilitates global chain ordering (i.e., chain extension) and therefore supplements our current understanding of chain orientation at a molecular level.
AB - Intermolecular crowding of densely tethered polymers promotes chain extension and anisotropy that induces many unique properties. In this study, we used conformation-sensitive infrared spectroscopy to determine that chain extension in a polymer brush is associated with local conformation rearrangements, i.e., contraction of side groups and increased proportion of gauche twists in the backbone, which served to increase molecular disorder at or below the segmental scale. This conformational transition points to a particular molecular mechanism for chain extension in densely tethered polymers, wherein increased local disorder facilitates global chain ordering (i.e., chain extension) and therefore supplements our current understanding of chain orientation at a molecular level.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091191113&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85091191113&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02374
DO - 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02374
M3 - Article
C2 - 32864965
AN - SCOPUS:85091191113
SN - 1948-7185
VL - 11
SP - 7814
EP - 7818
JO - Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
JF - Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
IS - 18
ER -