Scaling of dynamics in 2d semi-dilute polymer solutions

¹ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
² Department of Physics, UMIST - Manchester M60 1QD, UK

Received: 24 May 2004
Accepted: 29 July 2004

Abstract

We consider the dynamics of thermal concentration fluctuations in polymer Langmuir monolayers, probed with surface light scattering. We present data on the proteins β-lactoglobulin and β-casein and on the synthetic polymers Poly(vinyl acetate) and Poly(4-hydroxystyrene). We show that for all these systems, in the semi-dilute concentration regime, there is a power law dependency of both the elastic and viscous components of the dilational modulus on the concentration. We find that for all the systems considered, the viscosity scales with a power that is double that of the elasticity. A simple explanation for this universal dynamical behavior in semidilute polymer monolayers is suggested.