Laterale Selbstorganisation an Grenzflächen durch inter- und intramolekulare Wechselwirkung

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Christiane A. Helm
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 1998 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5107886

With this proposal we want to increase the fundamental knowledge in the field of wetting and thin films of polymers as a function of the molecular architecture, intermolecular interactions and the forces due to the adjacent interfaces. For this purpose we investigate flexible macromolecules at the air/water interface and take advantage of the following points: (i) one can easily determine and tune the surface concentration (ii) the thin films can reach equilibrium faster, because of the fluid subphase (iii) one can quite easily determine phase transitions from the shape of the lateral pressure/area isotherms.Besides a complete characterization of the thermodynamics of these systems we want to characterize the density profile of the polymer segments along the normal to the thin film using specular x-ray and neutron reflectivity and obtain information on the lateral structure using off-specular synchrotron reflectometry and scanning force microscopy.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1052: Benetzung und Strukturbildung an Grenzflächen