摘要
Poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) chains are grafted on one side of a microcantilever by the self-assembled method and the deflections of the microcantilever are detected as a function of medium pH from 3 to 11. It is found that when the pH varies, the microcantilever deflects because of the changing surface stress. By analysing the electrostatic repulsive effect, the surface stress change is related to the conformation transition of PAA from a collapse state to a swelling state. This method offers the interaction information among the polymer chains during the conformational transition and affords an alternative way to study conformational change of polymers.
Poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) chains are grafted on one side of a microcantilever by the self-assembled method and the deflections of the microcantilever are detected as a function of medium pH from 3 to 11. It is found that when the pH varies, the microcantilever deflects because of the changing surface stress. By analysing the electrostatic repulsive effect, the surface stress change is related to the conformation transition of PAA from a collapse state to a swelling state. This method offers the interaction information among the polymer chains during the conformational transition and affords an alternative way to study conformational change of polymers.
基金
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 20674078, 10627201, 10472111 and 10472112, and the Doctorial Programme of the Ministry of Education of China under Grant No 20040358027.