POS4-0467
Raft-Like Assemblies of Bottlebrush Polymers at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces
Topic
S4. Colloids, Interfaces, and Molecular Assemblies for Functional Soft Materials
When and Where
Sep 29, 2026
08:30 - 09:30
Room 301 (Grand Ballroom)
Session Chairs
Hae Jung SON
Boseok KANG
Presenter(s)
Dupyo Jeon (UMass Amherst)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
This presentation will describe the segregation of amphiphilic random copolymer-grafted bottlebrush polymers (RC-BBPs) at fluid interfaces. We find that RC-BBPs stabilize an oil-water interface by assembling into “raft-like” structures with alignment of their side-chains parallel to the interface. Since these raft assemblies leave bare interface regions that are inaccessible to adsorption of additional rafts, RC-BBPs exhibit higher interfacial tensions and lower surface densities compared to compositionally uniform bottlebrush statistical copolymers (BSCPs). Such sparse interfacial packing provides a significant functional advantage: the inter-raft gaps act as pathways for mass transport; a >6-fold higher ion flux across contacting drops relative to their BSCP counterparts. These results show that introducing randomness within side-chains—a previously overlooked structural parameter—produces a sparsely packed assembly of BBPs in which bare interfacial area affords access to regulated, patchy, or adaptive liquid-liquid interfaces.
