Langmuir, Vol.31, No.25, 7025-7031, 2015
Adsorption of Polyether Block Copolymers at Silica-Water and Silica-Ethylammonium Nitrate Interfaces
Atomic force microscope (AFM) force curves and images are used to characterize the adsorbed layer structure formed by a series of diblock copolymers with solvophilic poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and solvophobic poly(ethyl glycidyl ether) (PEGE) blocks at silica-water and silica-ethylammoniun nitrate (BAN, a room temperature ionic liquid (IL)) interfaces. The diblock polyethers examined are EGE(109)EO(54), EGE(113)EO(115), and EGE(104)EO(178). These experiments reveal how adsorbed layer structure varies as the length of the EO block varies while the EGE block length is kept approximately constant; water is a better solvent for PEO than EAN, so higher curvature structures are found at the interface of silica with water than with EAN. At silica-water interfaces, EGE(109)EO(54) forms a bilayer and EGE(113)EO(115) forms elongated aggregates, while a well-ordered array of spheres is present for EGE(104)EO(178). EGE(109)EO(54) does not adsorb at the silica-EAN interface because the EO chain is too short to compete with the ethylammonium cation for surface adsorption sites. However, EGE(113)EO(115) and EGE(104)EO(178) do adsorb and form a bilayer and elongated aggregates, respectively.