Solving a surface/bulk conundrum: extending the examination of interfacial multilayer formation in PEI/SDS mixtures to the charge density
The mechanism of formation of interfacial multilayers in oppositely charged polyelectrolyte/surfactant systems has recently come under scrutiny. Typically the rationalization of the presence of a Bragg peak in neutron reflectivity data of such systems is surface induced self assembly. However, for the system Pdadmac/SDS we demonstrated on FIGARO that the underlying process is related to the self assembly of bulk aggregates with internal molecular structure combined with their transport towards a given interface under gravity. We have recently extended this work to the PEI/SDS system, which is much more widely studied in this respect, and critically we have shown that the same mechanism is dominant. A conundrum remains however, as the bulk aggregates are more ordered at higher polyelectrolyte charge density where no such surface structure has yet been observed. Logically the surface structure must exist under certain conditions, and we believe that we can solve this conundrum by the application of the same novel methodology to the problem. With this beam time award, we will be able to deliver a thorough characterization of multilayer formation in the PEI/SDS system by next summer.
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Richard A. Campbell; KARDOS Attila and VARGA Imre. (2013). Solving a surface/bulk conundrum: extending the examination of interfacial multilayer formation in PEI/SDS mixtures to the charge density. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.9-10-1281
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