Density profile of terminally anchored polymer chains: a Monte Carlo study

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We present results of a detailed Monte Carlo simulation study of a system of a large num-ber of polymer chains terminally anchored or end-grafted on a flat surface. We study this system on a three-dimensional lattice for several different values of the surface coverage and the chain length. We also consider several different distributions for the chain lengths. For monodisperse chains, we find that the monomer density profile shows a depletion layer near the grafting plane in agreement with phenomenolog-ical theories. Beyond this depletion layer, the density profile can be represented by a parabolic form. This result is in agreement with recent self-consistent-field (SCF) calculations rather than with the scaling argu-ments that predict a plateau region for the density profile. The chain-end density is also found to be con-sistent with the SCF calculations; Le., we find that the free ends of the chains are not excluded from regions