Effect of chain architecture of graft copolymer on the structure of adsorbed layer: a Monte Carlo simulation approach

The effect of chain architecture of graft copolymer on the structure of an adsorbed layer on a surface is investigated using an off-lattice Monte Carl o simulation method. The graft copolymers used for the simulation have the same composition but different chain architecture. The simulation results s how that the layer thickness of multi-chains adsorbed onto the surface firs t decreases with increasing the number of side chains, indicating that the chain conformation of the adsorbed polymer becomes more flattened as the le ngth of the side chain becomes shorter. When the length of the side chain d ecreases further than a critical length, however, a slight increase in laye r thickness is observed, accompanied with an increase in the population of loosely bound chains. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.