Surface tethered polyelectrolyte brushes are scientifically interesting and technologically relevant to many applications, ranging from colloidal stabilization to responsive and tunable materials to lubrication. Many applications operate in environments containing multivalent ions, media in which our scientific understanding is not yet well developed. We synthesized high density polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) brushes via surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization, and performed neutron reflectivity (NR) and surface forces apparatus (SFA) measurements to investigate and compare the effects of monovalent Na+, and trivalent Y3+ counterions to the structure of the densely tethered PSS brushes. SFA friction measurements on PSS brushes show that the presence of trivalent counterions can great alter the lubrication properties of the PSS brushes.<br/>

Effect of multivalent counterions to the structure and lubrication properties of polystyrene sulfonate brushes

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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