Abstract
Lattice Monte Carlo simulations and the contact distribution method are used to analyze the force of interactions between two undersaturated polymer layers in good solvents. The net force between the surfaces, resulting from a competition between bridging attraction and steric repulsion, is obtained unambiguously for coverages Γ ranging from 0 to the saturation coverage Γ0. The sizes and the number of the bridges are in qualitative agreement with previous scaling analysis, but a number of quantitative differences important in practice emerge from the simulations. While the bridges may be considered as independent elastic tethers at low coverages, steric interactions begin to exert influence for coverages as low as Γ ≈ 0.3Γ0. Comparison of the results of the simulations with numerical mean-field calculations based on second-order Markov chains (i.e., without backfolding) shows good agreement with some of the structural features of the polymer layer, but important discrepancies regarding the force of intera...
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