Influence of Adsorption Layers of Polyelectrolytes on the Wetting and Modification of the Polystyrene Surface

Abstract

The adsorption of cationic and anionic polyelectrolytes (PEs) from aqueous solutions on the polystyrene surface is studied by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and contact angle measurements. It is shown that, despite the multilayer nature of adsorption, only a monolayer of PE macromolecules is firmly retained on the polymer surface, and the polystyrene surface is hydrophilized. It is shown that with the complete monolayer filling of the surface, the degree of modification of the polystyrene surface does not depend on the nature of the studied PEs, and the modifying monolayers provide the value of the polystyrene/water interfacial energy, which indicates the potential biocompatibility of the material based on the modified polystyrene.