Surfactants, analogy with diblock copolymers

Amphiphilic diblock copolymers act as a surfactant and stabilize free-standing films. They are assumed to adsorb at the interface by analogy with low-molecular-weight surfactants The hydrophobic part is collapsed at the interfaces and the hydrophilic part is directed towards the film core (Fig. 2a). Investigations of the structure at a single liquid interface (air/water) show that the amphiphilic diblock copolymers present polymer brushes which are anchored by the hydrophobic block at the interface [22, 23], This structure is also assumed at the film surfaces. Fig. 3 shows the disjoining pressure iso-... 

It is generally assumed that block copolymers in a selective solvent form micelles via a so-called closed association process, characterized by a certain CMC, also designated by CAC below which only molecularly dissolved copolymer is present in solution, usually as unimers. Above CMC, multimolecular micelles are in equilibrium with the unimers. This situation, analogous to classical low molecular weight surfactants is schematically represented in Figure 7.4 for a A-B diblock copolymer in a selective solvent for the A block. Such a micellar system is characterized by ... 

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