Selective Adsorption of Confined Polymers: Self-Consistent Field Theory Studies

Abstract

Selective adsorption of flexible polymers, where only a fraction of the “sticker” monomers can be adsorbed, confined to a cylindrical pore, is studied within the self-consistent field theory (SCFT). The selective adsorption, modeled with di-block, alternating, and random distributions of the sticker monomers along the chain, shows different adsorption–desorption transition behaviors: when the polymer chain possesses a high fraction of stickers, the di-block sequence adsorbs better than the alternating and the random sequence. On the other hand, when the polymer chain possesses a low fraction of stickers, the alternating sequence is the most adsorbed chain. Our theory indicates that the correlation between stickers and nonadsorbing monomers (neutrals) enhances the adsorption of polymers at a low fraction of sticker monomers, while it hinders the adsorption of polymers at a high fraction of sticker monomers, revealing the mechanism of adsorption efficiency determined by the sequence of sticker monomers in a polymer chain.