New ends to the tale of tails: adsorption of comb polymers and the effect on colloidal stability

In this paper we consider the classical problem of homopolymer adsorption at the solid-liquid interface and discuss its implications for colloidal stability. More specifically, our focus is on comb-like homopolymers in the strong adsorption limit. A self-consistent field analysis shows that for relatively long side chains but still much longer backbones, the adsorbed layer is dominated by the side chains near the surface, whereas at larger distances the layer has features that belong to the backbone. As a rule, homopolymer adsorption promotes flocculation of colloids. This is attributed to the long polymer chains that form bridges between the colloidal particles. However, the free ends of the chains do not participate in the bridging and thus contribute with a small repulsive term to the mainly attractive pair interaction. For comb polymers, the free ends of the side chains amplify the repulsion dramatically. As a result, in contrast to linear adsorbed homopolymers, comb polymers typically prevent flocculation.