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Optical properties of polybutadiene in the bulk and near a gold interface

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Abstract

We have investigated thick films from polybutadiene on gold-coated glass using surface plasmon resonance / leaky optical waveguide spectroscopy with the aim of investigating differences in bulk and interphase properties in a single measurement. A broad range of molar masses was studied. Drying under ambient conditions leads to an exponential decay of the film thickness. Subsequent vacuum drying does not result in any further changes in the bulk part of the film but at the polymer-solid interface, indicating the absence of residual solvent. For all molar masses studied, the surface plasmon resonance is observed at angles which are incompatible with the properties of the bulk part of the film. A polymer interphase is thus present next to the gold layer which has a refractive index lower than in the bulk. Using transversal magnetic- and transversal electric polarized light, an optical anisotropy is found in the interphase which is attributed to segment alignment along the interface with gold.

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Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge fruitful discussions with Prof. P. Müller-Buschbaum, Physikdepartment, Technische Universität München, Prof. W. Steffen, Dr. H. Duran, S. Dias Borges Vianna, and M. Plum, Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz. We thank Paul Heinz, Department Chemie, Technische Universität München, for help with the size-exclusion chromatography. This work was supported by the DFG priority program SPP 1369 ‘Polymer-Surface Contacts: Interfaces and Interphases’ (Pa771/7-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physikdepartment, Physik weicher Materie, Technische Universität München, James-Franck-Str. 1, 85747, Garching, Germany

    E. Tilo Hoppe & Christine M. Papadakis

  2. Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung, Molecular Spectroscopy Group, Ackermannweg, 55128, Mainz, Germany

    Isabel Hopp, Max Port & Bernhard Menges

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  1. E. Tilo Hoppe
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Correspondence to Christine M. Papadakis.

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Hoppe, E.T., Hopp, I., Port, M. et al. Optical properties of polybutadiene in the bulk and near a gold interface. Colloid Polym Sci 290, 1731–1741 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-012-2711-1

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