Investigation and electrical manipulation of adsorbed polymers measured by atomic force microscopy [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Matthias Erdmann

Investigation and ElectricalManipulation of Adsorbed Polymersmeasured by Atomic Force MicroscopyMatthias ErdmannMunch¨ en 2009Investigation and ElectricalManipulation of Adsorbed Polymersmeasured by Atomic Force MicroscopyMatthias ErdmannDissertationan der Fakultat fur Physik¨ ¨der Ludwig–Maximilians–Universitat¨Munchen¨vorgelegt vonMatthias Erdmannaus CoburgMunchen, den 15.09.2009¨Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Hermann E. GaubZweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Erwin FreyTag der mundlic¨ hen Prufung:¨ 20.10.2009AbstractPolymers, which are adsorbed on surfaces, offer a broad range of technological applica-tionssuchasadhesives,lubricantsandcompositematerialsornanodevicesandsensors.Thereby, their functionality is mainly governed by their static and dynamic propertiesand in particular, by their adhesion strength or bonding mechanisms to the substrate.These characteristics are determined by local interactions between the polymer andthe surface on the molecular scale. Therefore, AFM based single molecule force spec-troscopy was used to determine the conformation and the friction of single adsorbedpolymers. Moreover, the adhesion strength and alternatively the bonding of singlepolymers to surfaces were externally controlled and manipulated by electrochemicaltechniques and measured by AFM.• The end-to-end distance of a polymer characterizes its spatial structure and de-pends on the Kuhn length, the contour length and an exponential scaling factor.