Speaker
Description
The salt effect of KCl on D2O hydration and subsequent thermoresponsive behavior of diblock copolymer (DBC) thin films, which feature a short zwitterionic poly(4-((3-methacrylamidopropyl) dimethylammonio) butane-1-sulfonate)) (PSBP) block and a long nonionic thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM) block, is studied by in situ spectral reflectance (SR) and time-of-flight neutron reflectivity (ToF-NR) in combination with isotope sensitivity. The solvation-triggered phase transition upon D2O hydration and subsequent heating is probed in situ by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Besides, the migration and/or aggregation of KCl domains inside the DBC thin films is also demonstrated by complementary methods, namely, X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).
