Poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel-based etalons and etalon arrays for determining the molecular weight of polymers in solution

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Serpe, Michael J.
  • Islam, Molla R.

• Positively and/or negatively charged poly (N-isopropylacrylamide)-based microgels were deposited on a single substrate and isolated regions of Au overlayers were deposited on top of the microgels. Each spatially isolated Au overlayer region had a different thickness to make an etalon array. We found that areas with a thin Au overlayer (5 nm) responded to a range of polymer molecular weights (MW), while areas with a thick overlayer (35 nm) can only respond to low molecular weight polyelectrolytes. By comparing the optical responses of the device's individual array elements, a good approximation of the polyelectrolyte MW in solution can be made.

• Date created

  2013

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Microgels
  • Fabry-Perot Interferometers
  • Polyelectrolytes
  • Polymers
  • Gold

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3PV6BM43

• License

  Attribution 4.0 International