Huge Differences in the Kinetics of Swelling Enhancement and De‐enhancement of Permanently Charged Polyelectrolyte Brushes

Abstract

As demonstrated previously (X. Chu et al., Soft Matter 2014, 10, 5568), permanently charged polyelectrolyte brushes can experience an enhancement of swelling by exposure to an external monovalent salt solution in moderate concentrations. Beyond the previous static measurements, the kinetics of the swelling enhancement and de-enhancement were investigated in the current study by using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D). By developing an effective approach to quantify the response in QCM-D, a vast difference in swelling enhancement and de-enhancement of a model permanently charged polyelectrolyte brush (sodium polystyrene sulfonate, NaPSS) was discovered. The results indicate new physics of the charged brushes: the difference in the attachment and detachment of counterions to the polyelectrolyte chains.