Dendritic versus linear polymer brushes: Self-consistent field modeling, scaling theory, and experiments

Equilibrium structural properties of polymer brushes formed by dendritic polymer chains (dendrons) are studied by means of Scheutjens-Fleer self-consistent field (SF-SCF) modeling and scaling analysis. Limiting cases of minimal and maximal possible losses of conformational entropy corresponding to different assumptions concerning distribution of elastic tension in the end-grafted dendrons are analyzed on the basis of the Flory-type scaling approach. The numerical SCF modeling indicates that the effective exponent of the power-law dependence for the height of dendritic brush on the grafting density differs from that derived within the Flory-type approximation. This is explained by changing of the intramolecular elastic tension distribution upon an increase in grafting density. The distributions of end and branching points are wide and exhibit multiple maxima, pointing to a broad distribution in the chain stretching. This distribution leads to monotonically decreasing overall density profiles. The theoretical results are in line with experimental findings on linear and dendritic poly(ethylene glycol) layers end-grafted onto TiO2 surface