Design of Heterogeneous Surfaces for Polymer Adsorption

156 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003.The study of adsorption of a globular protein with intrinsic chemical heterogeneity was performed to highlight the role of the nature of adsorbates. On a chemically homogeneous surface, unlike flexible homopolymers, the adsorption kinetics of protein were strongly affected by the chemical properties of surfaces. The adsorption behavior on chemically heterogeneous surfaces was investigated in the case where the heterogeneity was on a molecular scale, nanometer scale, and micron scale. The kinetics indicated that macroscopic interfacial energy as well as the length scale of heterogeneity played a critical role in governing the adsorption characteristics. Morphological measurements by tapping mode AFM revealed that when the dimension of surface heterogeneity was commensurate with the protein, the heterogeneity affected the adsorption characteristics significantly.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD