Interfacial properties of polymeric liquids

Miguel Aubouy (1) , Manoel Manghi (1) , Elie Raphaël (2)

1 SPRAM - UMR 5819 - Structures et propriétés d'architectures moléculaire
2 LPMC - Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée

We show that the variations of the surface tension of polymeric solutions $\gamma$ with the molecular weight of the sample, Mn, the temperature, T and the volume fraction of monomers $\phi_b$, are explained by the self-organization of the long flexible chains that are present in the immediate vicinity of the interface. These chains form a layer whose structure results from the competition of a) the interactions between the chain segments, b) the entropy associated to the large polydispersity in size of the loops that are formed at the interface (a contribution not considered in the previous theories for the surface tension of a polymeric solution), and c) a specific attraction of chains ends towards the interface. Our theory yields a simple law $\gamma( \phi_b,Mn,T)$ which account quantitatively for the experimental data available in the literature with a very high accuracy.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Miguel Aubouy, Manoel Manghi, Elie Raphaël. Interfacial properties of polymeric liquids. Physical Review Letters, 2000, 21, pp.4858-4861. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.4858⟩. ⟨hal-00123903⟩