REGIMES OF POLYMER ADSORPTION-DESORPTION KINETICS

We show, and support with experiments, two limiting regimes of polymer adsorption-desorption. When these processes are rate limited by diffu sion they are expected to be non-exponential in time and the time cons tant is inversely proportional to the diffusion coefficient. When thes e processes are rate limited by the energetics of surface detachment, they are expected to be exponential in time and the time constant is e xponential in the molecular weight. This suggests a unifying perspecti ve from which to analyze polymer mobility at surfaces.