Surface Self-Assembly and Properties of Monolayers Formed by Reverse Poly(butylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(butylene oxide) Triblock Copolymers with Lengthy Hydrophilic Blocks

Abstract

The surface behavior and properties of several reverse poly(butylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(butylene oxide) block copolymers, BO8EO90BO8, BO12EO227BO12, BO14EO378BO14, BO20EO411BO20, and BO21EO385BO21 at the air/water interface have been analyzed by drop tensiometry, Langmuir film balance, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The kinetic adsorption process of block copolymer chains at the air/water interface is a diffusion-controlled process at short times. Structural rearrangements of the copolymer backbones are progressively more important as the adsorption carries on. The adsorption layers formed at the interface display evident solid-like behavior in the whole range of frequencies analyzed even at the lowest frequencies used probably as a result of the interconnection between hydrophobic ends of polymeric chains. All the copolymer display adsorption isotherm profiles are composed of four different regions in which the different characteristic regimes (“pancake”, mushroom”, “brush”, and collaps...