Charged polymer brushes

Szleifer and coworkers. Recently, Wu et al. applied this theory to successfully model the behavior in charged polymer brush systems [89]. More importantly, this theory enables the estimation of system parameters that are not easy (or even possible) to measure experimentally, such as the local dissociation inside the brush and the average charge of the polymer as a function of the distance from the surface. We will not provide any detailed information about the theory here. The interested reader is referred to the original publication and the references cited therein [89]. 

Theoretical Approaches to Neutral and Charged Polymer Brushes... 

Naji, A., Seidel, C. and Netz, R. R. Theoretical Approaches to Neutral and Charged Polymer Brushes. Vol. 198, pp. 149-183. 

Besides the analytical techniques, the theoretical description of polymer brushes allows a deeper understanding of the complex dynamic behavior of polymers on surfaces and is useful for future developments. Here, Roland Netz gives - also for the non-expert - a very helpful theoretical background on the theoretical approaches for the description of neutral and charged polymer brushes. 

Because the neutral polymer brushes are unlikely to be very strongly stretched, the MWC approach usually provides in this case an accurate approximation. The situation is however different for the highly charged grafted polyelectrolytes, which are almost completely... 

Using a self-consistent field theory, Misra et al. [10] examined the effect of the brush charge, electrolyte concentration, and surface charge density on the brush thickness. They extended the self-consistent field polymer brush theory suggested by Milner et al. [11] to the case of a polyelectrolyte brush. The theory involves a parabolic monomer concentration profile rather than the step-function suggested by Alexander [12] and de Gennes [13,14], The repulsion force... 

The Use of Positively Charged or Low Surface Free Energy Coatings versus Polymer Brushes in Controlling Biofilm Formation... 

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