“…While there is a lot of flexibility in synthesizing PE brushes for a specific application, it remains a challenge to predict its exact behavior in each setting due to a large number of microscopic and environmental variables that regulate such behavior. These variables include the molecular weight of the polymer chains, polydispersity, 41 chemical composition of the chains, solvent type, 42 solvent–monomer interactions, 43 screening counterion valence, 44 counterion structure, the position of the functional group in the chain (side chain or main chain 45,46 ), pH of the solution, 47 temperature of the system, concentration and type of the added salt (in addition to the screening counterions), etc. Moreover, additional complexities arise due to the highly non-linear inter-dependence of these different variables.…”