Speaker
Description
Thermoresponsive polymer thin films have gained a lot of attention in the past decades due to their attractiveness for a wide range of applications. A variety of polymer showing LCST- or UCST-type behavior are known, and their transition temperatures can be influenced by various factors such as molar mass, end groups, copolymerization, or by the addition of salts. For polymers in aqueous solution, it was found that the folding of the polymer chains can be strongly influenced by the type of salt and this ability follows a trend called the Hofmeister series. While this effect is well known in solution, the influence on the swelling behavior of PNIPMAM thin films has yet to be investigated thoroughly. We aim to elucidate the underlying mechanism by spectral reflectance and time-of-flight neutron reflectometry on a macroscopic scale and by in situ Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy on a molecular level.
