TY - JOUR A1 - König, Tobias A1 - Sekhar, Y. Nataraja A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - Surface plasmon nanolithography impact of dynamically varying near-field boundary conditions at the air-polymer interface JF - Journal of materials chemistry N2 - It is well-known that surface plasmon generated near fields of suitably irradiated metal nano-structures can induce a patterning in an azobenzene-modified photosensitive polymer film placed on top. The change in the topography usually follows closely and permanently the underlying near field intensity pattern. With this approach, one can achieve a multitude of morphologies by additionally changing light intensity, polarization and the kind of metal used for nano-structuring. In this paper, we demonstrate that below a critical value of the polymer film thickness, the receding polymer material induces a change in refractive index of the glass-metal-polymer system, modifying the near field intensity distribution and causing a back-reaction on the flow of polymer material. This has a profound influence on the smallest size of topographical features that can be imprinted into the polymer. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c2jm15864g SN - 0959-9428 VL - 22 IS - 13 SP - 5945 EP - 5950 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Moradi, N. A1 - Zakrevskyy, Yuriy A1 - Javadi, A. A1 - Aksenenko, E. V. A1 - Fainerman, V. B. A1 - Lomadze, Nino A1 - Santer, Svetlana A1 - Miller, R. T1 - Surface tension and dilation rheology of DNA solutions in mixtures with azobenzene-containing cationic surfactant JF - Colloids and surfaces : an international journal devoted to the principles and applications of colloid and interface science ; A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects N2 - The surface tension and dilational surface visco-elasticity of the individual solutions of the biopolymer DNA and the azobenzene-containing cationic surfactant AzoTAB, as well as their mixtures were measured using the drop profile analysis tensiometry. The negatively charged DNA molecules form complexes with the cationic surfactant AzoTAB. Mixed DNA + AzoTAB solutions exhibit high surface activity and surface layer elasticity. Extremes in the dependence of these characteristics on the AzoTAB concentration exist within the concentration range of 3 x 10(-6)-5 x 10(-5) M. The surface tension of the mixture shows a minimum with a subsequent maximum. In the same concentration range the elasticity shows first a maximum and then a subsequent minimum. A recently developed thermodynamic model was modified to account for the dependence of the adsorption equilibrium constant of the adsorbed complex on the cationic surfactant concentration. This modified theory shows good agreement with the experimental data both for the surface tension and the elasticity values over the entire range of studied AzoTAB concentrations. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Mixed adsorption layers KW - Polymer/surfactant interaction KW - Water/air interface KW - Thermodynamics of adsorption KW - Dilational rheology KW - Drop profile analysis tensiometry Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2016.04.021 SN - 0927-7757 SN - 1873-4359 VL - 505 SP - 186 EP - 192 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schlemmer, Christian A1 - Betz, Wolfgang A1 - Berchtold, Bernd A1 - Rühe, Jürgen A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - The design of thin polymer membranes filled with magnetic particles on a microstructured silicon surface N2 - In this paper we present the fabrication and characterization of polymer nanomembranes filled with magnetic nanoparticles and attached covalently to a periodic array of free-standing silicon walls, forming an array of micro- channels with the membrane as a cover. The width of a micro-channel of about 1.4 mu m sets a characteristic lateral size and the thickness of the polymer membrane ranges between 100 and 300 nm. The membrane is made of cross-linked hydrophilic polymers possessing a Young's modulus of only a few MPa. The presence of the magnetic particles within the membrane makes the film responsive to external magnetic fields. The mechanical and magnetic properties of the membrane are characterized by bulge tests and with atomic force microscopy. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-4484/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/20/25/255301 SN - 0957-4484 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Malyar, Ivan V. A1 - Santer, Svetlana A1 - Stetsyura, Svetlana V. T1 - The effect of illumination on the parameters of the polymer layer deposited from solution onto a semiconductor substrate JF - Technical physics letters : letters to the Russian journal of applied physics N2 - The effect of illumination on the thickness and roughness of monolayers of polycationic molecules of polyethyleneimine deposited from solution onto a silicon substrate was discovered and investigated. The super-bandgap illumination of the substrate during polyethyleneimine adsorption causes a decrease in both the roughness and integral thickness of the organic layer on n- and p-Si substrates. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063785013070183 SN - 1063-7850 VL - 39 IS - 7 SP - 656 EP - 659 PB - Pleiades Publ. CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rumyantsev, Artem M. A1 - Santer, Svetlana A1 - Kramarenko, Elena Yu. T1 - Theory of collapse and overcharging of a polyelectrolyte microgel induced by an oppositely charged surfactant JF - Macromolecules : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - We report on the theoretical study of interaction of ionic surfactants with oppositely charged microgel particles in dilute solutions. Two approaches are proposed. Within the first approach, the micellization of the surfactants inside the microgel is taken into account while the second model focuses on the hydrophobic interactions of the surfactant tails with the hydrophobic parts of microgel subchains. It has been shown that microgels effectively absorb surfactant ions. At low surfactant concentration this absorption is realized due to an ion exchange between microgel counterions and surfactant ions. The ion exchange is significantly affected by the amount of the microgel counterions initially trapped within the microgel particles which depends on the size of the microgel, its ionization degree, cross-linking density as well as polymer concentration in the solution. Increase of the surfactant concentration causes contraction of the microgels, which can be realized as either a continuous shrinking or a jump-like collapse transition depending on the system parameters. In the collapsed state additional absorption of surfactants by microgels takes place due to an energy gain from micellization or hydrophobic interactions. This leads to microgel precipitation and successive microgel overcharging at an excess of the surfactant in the solution. The theoretical results are compared with the existing experimental data, in particular, on photosensitive surfactant/microgel complexes. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/ma500637d SN - 0024-9297 SN - 1520-5835 VL - 47 IS - 15 SP - 5388 EP - 5399 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Titov, Evgenii A1 - Lysyakova, Liudmila A1 - Lomadze, Nino A1 - Kabashin, Andrei V. A1 - Saalfrank, Peter A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - Thermal Cis-to-Trans Isomerization of Azobenzene-Containing Molecules Enhanced by Gold Nanoparticles: An Experimental and Theoretical Study JF - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces N2 - We report on the experimental and theoretical investigation of a considerable increase in the rate for thermal cis -> trans isomerization of azobenzene-containing molecules in the presence of gold nanopartides. Experimentally, by means of UV vis spectroscopy, we studied a series of azobenzene-containing surfactants and 4-nitroazobenzene. We found that in the presence of gold,nanoparticles the thermal lifetime of the cis isomer of the azobenzenecontaining molecules was decreased by up to 3 orders of magnitude in comparison to the lifetime in solution without nanoparticles. The electron transfer between azobenzene-containing molecules and a surface of gold nanopartides is a possible reason to promote the thermal cis trans switching. To investigate the effect of electron attachment to, and withdrawal from, the azobenzene-containing molecules on the isomerization rate, we performed density functional theory calculations of activation energy barriers of the reaction together with Eyring's transition state theory calculations of the rates for azobenzene derivatives with donor and acceptor groups in para position of one of the phenyl rings, as well as for one of the azobenzene-containing surfactants. We found that activation barriers are greatly lowered for azobenzene-containing molecules, both upon electron attachment and withdrawal, which leads, in turn, to a dramatic increase in the thermal isomerization rate. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b02473 SN - 1932-7447 VL - 119 IS - 30 SP - 17369 EP - 17377 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - König, Tobias A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - Visualization of surface plasmon interference by imprinting intensity patterns on a photosensitive polymer JF - Nanotechnology N2 - We report on sub-wavelength structuring of photosensitive azo-containing polymer films induced by a surface plasmon interference intensity pattern. The two surface plasmon waves generated at neighboring nano-slits in the metal layer during irradiation interfere constructively, resulting in an intensity pattern with a periodicity three times smaller than the wavelength of the incoming light. The near field pattern interacts with the photosensitive polymer film placed above it, leading to a topography change which follows the intensity pattern exactly, resulting in the formation of surface relief gratings of a size below the diffraction limit. We analyze numerically and experimentally how the depth of the nano-slit alters the interference pattern of surface plasmons and find that the sub-wavelength patterning of the polymer surface could be optimized by modifying the geometry and the size of the nano-slit. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/23/48/485304 SN - 0957-4484 VL - 23 IS - 48 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER -