Sharp and fast: Sensors and switches based on polymer brushes with adsorption-active minority chains

Abstract

We propose a design for polymer-based sensors and switches with sharp switching transition and fast response time. The switching mechanism involves a radical change in the conformations of adsorption-active minority chains in a brush. Such transitions can be induced by a temperature change of only about ten degrees, and the characteristic time of the conformational change is less than a second. We present an analytical theory for these switches and support it by self-consistent field calculations and Brownian dynamics simulations.

arXiv commentHighlighted as APS focus story in Physics 7, 83 (2014)

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