Switchability and responsive behaviour in confined
polymer films
Increasingly there is interest in
'smart' materials, which change their properties or behaviour in
response to changes in environmental conditions. Any change in
environment will first be detected at a material's surface, and
materials that have a high surface area to volume ratio will give
fastest responses.
The types of switching behaviour
we are investigating includes molecular conformation changes on
exposure to light, pH, external fields, temperature, or ambient
solvent environment.
The types of polymer that show
useful changes in conformation in response to environmental
changes include polyelectrolytes (such as polymethacrylic acid),
which respond strongly to pH. Experiments on such polymers
grafted to inorganic surfaces will be performed using techniques
such as neutron reflectometry amongst other techniques.
More details:
Mark Geoghegan at the
University of Sheffield is in overall charge of this element of
the programme.
