Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: The conformation of thermoresponsive polymer brushes probed by optical
  reflectivity   We describe a microscope-based optical setup that allows us to perform
space-and time-resolved measurements of the spectral reflectance of transparent
substrates coated with ultrathin films. This technique is applied to
investigate the behavior in water of thermosensitive polymer brushes made of
poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) grafted on glass. We show that spectral reflectance
measurements yield quantitative information about the conformation and axial
structure of the brushes as a function of temperature. We study how molecular
parameters (grafting density, chain length) affect the hydra-tion state of a
brush, and provide one of the few experimental evidence for the occurrence of
vertical phase separation in the vicinity of the lower critical solution
temperature of the polymer. The origin of the hysteretic behavior of
poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) brushes upon cycling the temperature is also
clarified. We thus demonstrate that our optical technique allows for in-depth
characterization of stimuli-responsive polymer layers, which is crucial for the
rational design of smart polymer coatings in actuation, gating or sensing
applications.

21
The categories of this paper are: adap-org
10
The categories of this paper are: q-bio
26
The categories of this paper are: bayes-an
1
The categories of this paper are: cs
20
The categories of this paper are: acc-phys
37
The categories of this paper are: supr-con
8
The categories of this paper are: hep-ex
15
The categories of this paper are: nucl-ex
13
The categories of this paper are: quant-ph
3
The categories of this paper are: physics
22
The categories of this paper are: chao-dyn
32
The categories of this paper are: atom-ph
18
The categories of this paper are: econ
17
The categories of this paper are: q-fin
2
The categories of this paper are: math
6
The categories of this paper are: astro-ph