Systems such as targeted drug delivery and functionalized polymer films utilize mixed chemical systems to manipulate desirable surface properties at a molecular level. Mixed systems allow particular chemical functionalization at the surface that cannot be achieved without the interaction between multiple chemical species. Because many surface chemistry applications rely on the specifics of chemical adsorption at buried liquid/liquid interfaces, a molecular-level understanding of the structure of adsorbed complexes from mixed systems at the surface is needed. The studies discussed herein reveal the interfacial complexation of nonionic polymer/surfactant mixed systems at the buried oil/water interface through the use of the surface-specific nonlinear experimental technique of vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy. Where hydrophobic interactions are found to affect the amount of chemical adsorption at the interface, the charge-dipole interactions between the surfactant headgroup and the polymer functional groups are responsible for the specific net structure the molecules adopt at the surface.

Adsorption and net structure of polymer-surfactant complexes at the oil/water interface as induced by their specific intermolecular interactions

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.