@article{SchoeneRichauKratzetal.2015, author = {Sch{\"o}ne, Anne-Christin and Richau, Klaus and Kratz, Karl and Schulz, Burkhard and Lendlein, Andreas}, title = {Influence of Diurethane Linkers on the Langmuir Layer Behavior of Oligo[(rac-lactide)-co-glycolide]-based Polyesterurethanes}, series = {Macromolecular rapid communications}, volume = {36}, journal = {Macromolecular rapid communications}, number = {21}, publisher = {Wiley-VCH}, address = {Weinheim}, issn = {1022-1336}, doi = {10.1002/marc.201500316}, pages = {1910 -- 1915}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Three oligo[(rac-lactide)-co-glycolide] based polyesterurethanes (OLGA-PUs) containing different diurethane linkers are investigated by the Langmuir monolayer technique and compared to poly[(rac-lactide)-co-glycolide] (PLGA) to elucidate the influence of the diurethane junction units on hydrophilicity and packing motifs of these polymers at the air-water interface. The presence of diurethane linkers does not manifest itself in the Langmuir layer behavior both in compression and expansion experiments when monomolecular films of OLGA-PUs are spread on the water surface. However, the linker retard the evolution of morphological structures at intermediate compression level under isobaric conditions (with a surface pressure greater than 11 mN m(-1)) compared to the PLGA, independent on the chemical structure of the diurethane moiety. The layer thicknesses of both OLGA-PU and PLGA films decrease in the high compression state with decreasing surface pressure, as deduced from ellipsometric data. All films must be described with the effective medium approximation as water swollen layers.}, language = {en} } @article{RottkeSchulzRichauetal.2016, author = {Rottke, Falko O. and Schulz, Burkhard and Richau, Klaus and Kratz, Karl and Lendlein, Andreas}, title = {An ellipsometric approach towards the description of inhomogeneous polymer-based Langmuir layers}, series = {Beilstein journal of nanotechnology}, volume = {7}, journal = {Beilstein journal of nanotechnology}, publisher = {Beilstein-Institut zur F{\~A}\Prderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften}, address = {Frankfurt, Main}, issn = {2190-4286}, doi = {10.3762/bjnano.7.107}, pages = {1156 -- 1165}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The applicability of nulling-based ellipsometric mapping as a complementary method next to Brewster angle microscopy (BAM) and imaging ellipsometry (IE) is presented for the characterization of ultrathin films at the air-water interface. First, the methodology is demonstrated for a vertically nonmoving Langmuir layer of star-shaped, 4-arm poly(omega-pentadecalactone) (PPDL-D4). Using nulling-based ellipsometric mapping, PPDL-D4-based inhomogeneously structured morphologies with a vertical dimension in the lower nm range could be mapped. In addition to the identification of these structures, the differentiation between a monolayer and bare water was possible. Second, the potential and limitations of this method were verified by applying it to more versatile Langmuir layers of telechelic poly[(rac-lactide)-co-glycolide]-diol (PLGA). All ellipsometric maps were converted into thickness maps by introduction of the refractive index that was derived from independent ellipsometric experiments, and the result was additionally evaluated in terms of the root mean square roughness, R-q. Thereby, a three-dimensional view into the layers was enabled and morphological inhomogeneity could be quantified.}, language = {en} }