THEORY OF THE COLLAPSE-STRETCHING TRANSITION OF A POLYMER BRUSH IN A MIXED-SOLVENT

The collapse-stretching transition of a polymer brush in a binary solvent was considered on the basis of mean-field theory. The transition is found to be roughly guided by a single parameter chi and to differ slightly from that in the one-component solvent. The peculiarities of the good solvent/precipitant mixture were considered. An analogy between the collapse-stretching transition of a polymer brush in a binary solvent and the well-known effect of polymer precipitation in the mixed solvent was shown.