open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/84164

Growth Mechanism of Polymer Membranes Obtained by H-Bonding Across Immiscible Liquid Interfaces

英語

Membranes

2021-02-16

American Chemical Society

ACS macro letters

10(2)

204-209

Complexation of polymers at liquid interfaces is an emerging technique to produce all-liquid printable and self-healing devices and membranes. It is crucial to control the assembly process, but the mechanisms at play remain unclear. Using two different reflectometric methods, we investigate the spontaneous growth of H-bonded PPO-PMAA (polypropylene oxide-polymetacrylic acid) membranes at a flat liquid-liquid interface. We find that the membrane thickness h grows with time t as h similar to t(1/2), which is reminiscent of a diffusion-limited process. However, counterintuitively, we observe that this process is faster as the PPO molar mass increases. We are able to rationalize these results with a model which considers the diffusion of the PPO chains within the growing membrane. The architecture of the latter is described as a gel-like porous network, with a pore size much smaller than the radius of the diffusing PPO chains, thus inducing entropic barriers that hinder the diffusion process. From the comparison between the experimental data and the result of the model, we extract some key piece of information about the microscopic structure of the membrane. This study opens the route toward the rational design of self-assembled membranes and capsules with optimal properties.

学術雑誌論文

Accepted Manuscript

http://pubs.acs.org/articlesonrequest/AOR-CPDCWWBHJU37VHWKD7AA

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS macro letters, copyright c American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://pubs.acs.org/articlesonrequest/AOR-CPDCWWBHJU37VHWKD7AA.

2161-1653