The interaction effects on the adsorption properties of an alternating copolymer chain at liquid–liquid interface

Abstract

Analytical and numerical methods have been combined to investigate the effect of monomers-interfacial interactions on the behavior of a single alternating polymer chain at liquid–liquid interface. The exact Green's function of a Gaussian copolymer chain at attractive penetrable interface has been employed to determine monomer distribution profiles ρ(z), mean-square end-to-end distance 〈R2(z)〉 and the interfacial tension Δγ of the alternating copolymer chain. A comparison between the diblock and alternating copolymer chain is presented. Our model shows that, the alternating copolymer adsorbs more readily than the diblock copolymer at liquid–liquid interface. Also, these copolymers are able to reduce the interfacial tension when presented at the interface.