Langmuir monolayers of non-ionic polymers: equilibrium or metastability? Case study of PEO and its PPO-PEO diblock copolymers.

Stability and reorganization in Langmuir films of PEO in PEO homopolymers and PPO-PEO block copolymers were investigated using film balance measurements. The apparent fractional losses of EO segments transferred into the subphase resulting from successive compression-expansion cycles have been estimated. The apparent loss is mainly Γ(max), M(n) and time-dependent. At surface concentrations Γ⩽0.32 mg/m(2), PEO films are in equilibrium. For 0.32⩽Γ⩽0.7 mg/m(2), the losses remain modest. Further compression leads to densification of the monolayer, requiring the interplay of thermodynamics and kinetic factors In the plateau regime, the loss is higher and constant for 1⩽Γ(max)⩽2 mg/m(2) upon maintaining the achieved surface area for 15 min. Similar losses were obtained for PEO homopolymers of high Mn and PPO353-PEO2295. It suggests that the PEO remains anchored in a metastable state at the air-water interface at surface concentration well above the onset of the plateau. Additional losses are incurred for PEO homopolymers for monolayers kept compressed in the plateau for 2 h. For the interpretation of these phenomena a combination of elements from self-consistent field theory and scaling is desirable with as a trend an increasing contribution of the latter with increasing surface concentration.

Phase transitions in polymer monolayers: Application of the Clapeyron equation to PEO in PPO-PEO Langmuir films.

In this paper we investigate the application of the two-dimensional Clapeyron law to polymer monolayers. This is a largely unexplored area of research. The main problems are (1) establishing if equilibrium is reached and (2) if so, identifying and defining phases as functions of the temperature. Once this is validated, the Clapeyron law allows us to obtain the entropy and enthalpy differences between two coexisting phases. In turn, this information can be used to obtain insight into the conformational properties of the films and changes therein. This approach has a wide potential for obtaining additional information on polymer adsorption at interfaces and the structure of their monolayer films. The 2D Clapeyron law was applied emphasizing polyethylene oxide (PEO) in polypropylene oxide (PPO)-PEO block copolymers, based on new well-defined data for their Langmuir films. Values for enthalpy per monomer of 0.12 and 0.23 kT were obtained for the phase transition of two different PEO chains (Neo of 2295 and 409, respectively). This enthalpy was estimated to correspond to 1.2±0.4 kT per EO monomer present in train conformation at the air/water interface.