Abstract

Polymer monolayers spread at the air/water interface were obtained for: poly(monooctyl itaconate) (PMOI), poly(monodecyl itaconate) (PMDI), poly(monododecyl itaconate) (PMDoI), poly(monobenzyl itaconate) (PMBzI), poly(methyldodecyl itaconate) (PMeDoI) and the alternating copolymer (monooctyl itaconate-alt-maleic anhydride) (MOI-alt-MA). By monolayer compression at constant temperature, the respective Langmuir isotherms for these polymers were obtained. For all polymers the zero-pressure limiting area per repeating unit (ru) Ao, and the collapse pressure ?c were determined. At low surface polymer concentrations, the monolayers characterization was carried out according to the surface pressure expressed as a function of the surface concentration. The behavior observed was described by the virial expansion development. At the semidilute region, the surface pressure variation was expressed in terms of the scaling laws as a power function of the surface concentration. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.