Ellipsometric characterization of ethylene oxide-butylene oxide diblock copolymer adsorption at the air-water interface

Ellipsometry was used to determine the adsorbed layer thickness (d) and the surface excess (adsorbed amount, Gamma) of a nonionic diblock copolymer, E106B16, of poly(ethylene oxide) (E) and poly(butylene oxide) (13) at the air-water interface. The results were obtained (i) by the conventional ellipsometric evaluation procedure using the change of both ellipsometric angles, T and A and (ii) by using the change of A only and assuming values of the layer thickness. It was demonstrated that the calculated surface excesses from the different methods were in close agreement, independent of the evaluation procedure, with a plateau adsorption of about 2.5 mg/m(2) (400 A(2)/molecule). Furthermore, the amount of E106B16 adsorbed at the air-water interface was found to be almost identical to that adsorbed from aqueous solution onto a hydrophobic solid surface. In addition, the possibility to use combined measurements with H2O or D2O as substrates to calculate values of d and F was investigated and discussed. We also briefly discuss within which limits the Gibbs equation can be used to determine the surface excess of polydisperse block copolymers.