Interaction forces between surfaces coated with highly branched polyelectrolytes

In this thesis, interactions between surfaces with adsorbed highly branched polyelectrolytes were studied with the colloidal probe technique. By studying the adsorption behavior of highly branched polyelectrolytes, the lateral distribution of the surface charge could be tuned by the appropriate adsorption conditions. By choosing different polyelecrtrolytes, namely highly branched poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) and poly(amido amine) (PAMAM) dendrimers, it was possible to investigate the forces between homogeneously charged layers, as well as surfaces compodes of charge patches where both the patch size and the distance between them could be tuned. The output of the force measurements allowed not only to know its dependence on the surface charge heterogeneity, but also some properties of the individual adsorbed polymers.