Investigations have been carried out to probe the conformations of tethered
poly(ethyleneglycol) (PEG) chains anchored on polystyrene (PS) latex parti
cles in presence of an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and
two inorganic salts, sodium and potassium chloride. For this purpose, PS l
atex particles were labeled with pyrene and mononaphthayl PEG ester. Distan
ce dependent nonradiative energy transfer from naphthalene moieties to pyre
ne moieties was used as a ruler in this study. Results showed that the sepa
ration distance between the acceptor and the donor changes with external st
imuli. Analysis of the results suggested that there is considerable contrac
tion of the polymer chain upon interaction with salts and surfactant below
its critical micelle concentration. The study also reveals that SDS interac
ts with PEG chains bellow its critical micellar concentration, probably due
to binding of SDS counterions to PEG chains. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd
. All rights reserved.