THEORY OF ADSORPTION OF MACROMOLECULES .1. DESORPTION-ADSORPTION TRANSITION POINT

The general theory of adsorption of a single long ideal polymer chain on the surface is developed. The basic equation for the adsorption-desorption phase transition point is derived. In the phase transition point the grand partition functions of sequences of units adsorbed on the surface or on the thread are shown to be equal to 1. The equations connecting the critical energy of adsorption with the conformational partition functions of units on the surface and in volume are obtained. In order to show the generality of the derived equations, they are applied to determination of the critical adsorption energies for a number of model chains considered previously elsewhere. The developed theory may be used as a base for the creation of the quantitative theory of adsorption of macromolecules (as far as the determination of the phase transition point is concerned). © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.