Multiarm molecular brushes:: Effect of the number of arms on the molecular weight polydispersity and surface ordering

Individual molecules of multiarm starlike molecular brushes were visualized by atomic force microscopy. In the studied series of brushes, the number of arms varied from one for a linear chain to four, while the length of the side chains was kept approximately constant. Molecular visualization provided a unique opportunity for independent size characterization of the brush arms separately from that of the entire molecule. In agreement with the Schulz-Flory theory for chain coupling, the polydispersity of the total length was significantly lower than that of the arm length. The variation in polydispersity had an effect on molecular ordering. Lateral compression of the starlike brushes caused a transition from an extended dendritic-like conformation to a compact disklike conformation. In contrast to one-, two-, and three-arm brushes, the four-arm molecules with a lower polydispersity index of 1.04 demonstrated local hexagonal order.