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Frink LJD, van Swol F, Malanoski AP, Petsev DN. Film swelling and contaminant adsorption at polymer coated surfaces: Insights from density functional theory. J Chem Phys 2024; 161:114710. [PMID: 39301856 DOI: 10.1063/5.0225085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2024] [Accepted: 09/04/2024] [Indexed: 09/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Designing coatings and films that can protect surfaces is important in a wide variety of applications from corrosion prevention to anti-fouling. These systems are challenging from a modeling perspective because they are invariably multicomponent, which quickly leads to an expansive design space. At a minimum, the system has a substrate, a film (often composed of a polymeric material), a ubiquitous carrier solvent, which may be either a vapor or liquid phase, and one or more contaminants. Each component has an impact on the effectiveness of coating. This paper focuses on films that are used as a barrier to surface contamination, but the results also extend to surface coatings that are designed to extract a low density species from the fluid phase as in liquid chromatography. A coarse-grained model is developed using Yukawa potentials that encompasses both repulsive and attractive interactions among the species. Classical density functional theory calculations are presented to show how contaminant adsorption is controlled by the molecular forces in the system. Two specific vectors through the parameter space are considered to address likely experimental manipulations that change either the solvent or the polymer in a system. We find that all the adsorption results can be unified by considering an appropriate combination of molecular parameters. As a result, these calculations provide a link between molecular interactions and film performance and may serve to guide the rational design of films.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura J Douglas Frink
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Center for Microengineered Materials, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
| | - Frank van Swol
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Center for Microengineered Materials, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
| | - Anthony P Malanoski
- United States Naval Research Laboratory, Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, Washington, D.C. 20375, USA
| | - Dimiter N Petsev
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Center for Microengineered Materials, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
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Borówko M, Staszewski T. Adsorption on Ligand-Tethered Nanoparticles. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22168810. [PMID: 34445511 PMCID: PMC8396279 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22168810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Revised: 08/07/2021] [Accepted: 08/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
We use coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to study adsorption on ligand-tethered particles. Nanoparticles with attached flexible and stiff ligands are considered. We discuss how the excess adsorption isotherm, the thickness of the polymer corona, and its morphology depend on the number of ligands, their length, the size of the core, and the interaction parameters. We investigate the adsorption-induced structural transitions of polymer coatings. The behavior of systems involving curved and flat "brushes" is compared.
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Staszewski T, Borówko M. Adsorption-induced co-assembly of hairy and isotropic particles. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2020; 22:8757-8767. [PMID: 32281995 DOI: 10.1039/c9cp06854f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We use coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to study the behavior of polymer-tethered particles immersed in fluids of isotropic particles. Particles modified with weakly anchored, mobile ligands are considered. We discuss how the concentration of fluid particles affects the morphology of an isolated hairy particle. It is shown that hairy particles present different morphologies including typical core-shell, octopus-like and corn-like, depending on fluid-segment interactions and the fluid density. The mechanism of changes in the shape of hairy particles is explained. The reconfiguration of the polymer corona arises from adsorption of fluid particles "on chains". The adsorbed fluid particles form bridges between the chains. This causes the mobile ligands to merge into clusters on the core surface. A part of the core remains empty so the hairy particle becomes a Janus-like object. We also study co-assembly in mixtures of hairy and isotropic particles. Depending on the strength of fluid-segment interactions, hairy particles with fluid particles trapped inside their coronas remain isolated or form mixed clusters of different structures. The aggregation of hairy particles results from the formation of bridges between chains belonging to different cores by fluid particles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomasz Staszewski
- Department of Theoretical Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland.
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Li C, Zhang T, Yang Y, Tang P, Qiu F. Polymer Brushes Immersed in Two-Component Solvents with Pure Volume Exclusion: Effect of Solvent Molecular Shape. ACS OMEGA 2019; 4:12927-12937. [PMID: 31460419 PMCID: PMC6682017 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.9b01800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2019] [Accepted: 07/11/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Polymer brushes have wide application in surface modification. We study dense, short polymer brushes immersed in a mixing solvent under athermal conditions using the classical density functional theory. The brush polymer is short so that the equilibrium behavior of the brush deviates far from the scaling laws for infinite brush chains. The excluded volume interaction is the only interaction in the system. We compare the excluded volume effect of solvent molecules of different shapes. Two types of mixing solvents are considered: solvent composed of linear oligomers and monomers, or that of spherical particles and monomers. The effects of grafting density, solvent molecular size, and solvent number density on the brush height, the density profiles, the relative excess adsorption, and the brush-solvent interface width are systematically analyzed. In the adsorption aspect, the spherical particles have stronger ability than the linear oligomers do to penetrate through the brush layer and gather at the substrate. In the screening aspect, the oligomers are more capable of screening the excluded volume interaction between the brush chains than the spherical particles. The brush-solvent interface width decreases monotonically with increasing oligomer length, but it has a minimum with the increasing spherical particle size. Our research differentiates the attractive-interaction-induced phenomenon and the volume-exclusion-induced phenomenon in dense brush systems and exhibits the difference in the antifouling properties of the brushes contacting solvent molecules of different shapes.
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Zoppe JO, Ataman NC, Mocny P, Wang J, Moraes J, Klok HA. Surface-Initiated Controlled Radical Polymerization: State-of-the-Art, Opportunities, and Challenges in Surface and Interface Engineering with Polymer Brushes. Chem Rev 2017; 117:1105-1318. [PMID: 28135076 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 603] [Impact Index Per Article: 86.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
The generation of polymer brushes by surface-initiated controlled radical polymerization (SI-CRP) techniques has become a powerful approach to tailor the chemical and physical properties of interfaces and has given rise to great advances in surface and interface engineering. Polymer brushes are defined as thin polymer films in which the individual polymer chains are tethered by one chain end to a solid interface. Significant advances have been made over the past years in the field of polymer brushes. This includes novel developments in SI-CRP, as well as the emergence of novel applications such as catalysis, electronics, nanomaterial synthesis and biosensing. Additionally, polymer brushes prepared via SI-CRP have been utilized to modify the surface of novel substrates such as natural fibers, polymer nanofibers, mesoporous materials, graphene, viruses and protein nanoparticles. The last years have also seen exciting advances in the chemical and physical characterization of polymer brushes, as well as an ever increasing set of computational and simulation tools that allow understanding and predictions of these surface-grafted polymer architectures. The aim of this contribution is to provide a comprehensive review that critically assesses recent advances in the field and highlights the opportunities and challenges for future work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin O Zoppe
- Institut des Matériaux and Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Laboratoire des Polymères Bâtiment MXD, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Station 12 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nariye Cavusoglu Ataman
- Institut des Matériaux and Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Laboratoire des Polymères Bâtiment MXD, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Station 12 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Piotr Mocny
- Institut des Matériaux and Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Laboratoire des Polymères Bâtiment MXD, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Station 12 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jian Wang
- Institut des Matériaux and Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Laboratoire des Polymères Bâtiment MXD, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Station 12 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - John Moraes
- Institut des Matériaux and Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Laboratoire des Polymères Bâtiment MXD, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Station 12 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Harm-Anton Klok
- Institut des Matériaux and Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Laboratoire des Polymères Bâtiment MXD, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Station 12 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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Chen C, Tang P, Qiu F, Shi AC. Excluded volume effects in compressed polymer brushes: A density functional theory. J Chem Phys 2015; 142:124904. [PMID: 25833606 DOI: 10.1063/1.4916133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Cangyi Chen
- The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Ping Tang
- The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Feng Qiu
- The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - An-Chang Shi
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada
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Borówko M, Sokołowski S, Staszewski T. Adsorption on chemically bonded chain layers with embedded active groups. Mol Phys 2014. [DOI: 10.1080/00268976.2014.962636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Borówko M, Sokołowski S, Staszewski T. Terminally Grafted Chain Layers in Oligomer–Monomer Solutions: Predictions from a Density Functional Theory. J Phys Chem B 2013; 117:10293-303. [DOI: 10.1021/jp4027546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- M. Borówko
- Department
for the Modeling
of Physico-Chemical Processes, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
| | - S. Sokołowski
- Department
for the Modeling
of Physico-Chemical Processes, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
| | - T. Staszewski
- Department
for the Modeling
of Physico-Chemical Processes, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
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Lindsey RK, Rafferty JL, Eggimann BL, Siepmann JI, Schure MR. Molecular simulation studies of reversed-phase liquid chromatography. J Chromatogr A 2013; 1287:60-82. [PMID: 23489490 DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2013.02.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2013] [Revised: 02/10/2013] [Accepted: 02/11/2013] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Over the past 20 years, molecular simulation methods have been applied to the modeling of reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC). The purpose of these simulations was to provide a molecular-level understanding of: (i) the structure and dynamics of the bonded phase and its interface with the mobile phase, (ii) the interactions of analytes with the bonded phase, and (iii) the retention mechanism for different analytes. However, the investigation of chromatographic systems poses significant challenges for simulations with respect to the accuracy of the molecular mechanics force fields and the efficiency of the sampling algorithms. This review discusses a number of aspects concerning molecular simulation studies of RPLC systems including the historical development of the subject, the background needed to understand the two prevalent techniques, molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) methods, and the wealth of insight provided by these simulations. Examples from the literature employing MD approaches and from the authors' laboratory using MC methods are discussed. The former can provide information on chain dynamics and transport properties, whereas the latter techniques are uniquely suited for the investigation of phase and sorption equilibria that underly RPLC retention, and both can be used to elucidate the bonded-chain conformations and solvent distributions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca K Lindsey
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Theory Center, University of Minnesota, 207 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0431, USA
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Borówko M, Sokołowski S, Staszewski T. Adsorption from Oligomer–Monomer Solutions on the Surfaces Modified with End-Grafted Chains. J Phys Chem B 2012; 116:12842-9. [DOI: 10.1021/jp305624n] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- M. Borówko
- Department for the Modeling
of Physico-Chemical
Processes, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
| | - S. Sokołowski
- Department for the Modeling
of Physico-Chemical
Processes, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
| | - T. Staszewski
- Department for the Modeling
of Physico-Chemical
Processes, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
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