Monolayers of bottlebrush amphiphilic polymers and their mixed monolayers with dihexadecyl phosphate at the air–water interface. The effect of cerium (III) ions and quaternization of polymers

In this work, we synthesized three bottlebrush copolymers based on methoxy[oligo(ethylene glycol)]methacrylate, methoxy[oligo(propylene glycol)]methacrylate and N-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl] methacrylamide quaternized by methyl iodide with quaternized unit fraction equaled to 5 and 20%, Mw is equal to from 4467 to 4946. The structure of the polymers was established by 1H-NMR spectra. The polymer monolayers on pure water were obtained with low πmax (17–22 mN/m), and molecular areas were equal to 9.0, 12.0 and 12.8 nm2, respectively. There were investigated mixed polymer monolayers with dihexadecyl phosphate at the air–water interface and at cerium nitrate containing subphase, LB films transferred to silicon substrate using π-A isotherm methods, AFM, and a wetting method. The effect of cerium nitrate on double-decker structure formation at various interfaces was estimated. The approach to obtain stable monolayers of amphiphilic bottlebrush polymers using a preformed substrate from stable monolayers of compounds having an anchor group can be useful in creating new nanoscale structures or polymeric nanocontainers as a delivery system for active pharmaceutical ingredients.