SURFACE GELATION

We discuss the conditions required for surface polymer gelation and present some preliminary experimental evidence from surface tension studies on an ionomer system. In particular, a semi-dilute solution of associating polymers which adsorb onto an interface may have a profile that exceeds the gelation threshold sufficiently near the surface. We estimate the gel film elastic properties in both good solvents and the prewetting region. Lightly sulfonated polystyrene ionomers are shown to exhibit gel-like surface rheology in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for sufficient levels of substitution.