Comparative Analysis of Tethered and Untethered Polymers Close to a Surface Investigated by Monte Carlo Techniques

Abstract

Modification of inorganic particles with organic polymer layers leads to well defined hybrid nanoparticles with tunable properties. Studies of such systems rely on the investigation of polymers near to or attached at a surface. In the present investigation, size, shape, and orientation are investigated as functions of the distance of the center of gravity of linear and star‐branched polymers from the surface by use of Monte Carlo methods for neutral and attractive surfaces in good and moderate solvents. To quantify the strength of interaction, a parameter “excluded distance” is introduced. It vanishes if repulsive interaction due to the excluded volume effect and attractive ones compensate, which is roughly the case for surface–polymer interactions similar to polymer–polymer interactions in theta solvents.