Coat thickness dependent adsorption of hydrophobic molecules at polymer brushes

Abstract

We study the adsorption properties of hydrophobic test particles at polymer brushes with different coat thicknesses via mesoscopic dissipative particle dynamics simulations. Our findings indicate stronger free energies of adsorption at thin polymer brushes. The reason for this difference is mainly given by entropic contributions due to different elastic deformations of the coatings. The numerical findings are supported by analytical calculations and are in good qualitative agreement to experimental fluorescence intensity results.