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    Measuring Molecular Weight by Atomic Force Microscopy

    Year: 2003

    Journal: J. AM. CHEM. SOC. 2003, 125, 6725-6728, 20111221

    Authors: Sergei S. Sheiko,* Marcelo da Silva, David Shirvaniants, Isaac LaRue, Svetlana Prokhorova,Martin Moeller, Kathryn Beers, and Krzysztof Matyjaszewski

    Organizations: Contribution from the Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3290, USA, Organische Chemie III/Makromolekulare Chemie, Universität Ulm, D-89069 Ulm, Germany, and Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1521

    Absolute-molecular-weight distribution of cylindrical brush molecules were determined using a combination of the Langmuir Blodget (LB) technique and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The LB technique gives mass density of a monolayer, i.e., mass per unit area, whereas visualization of individual molecules by AFM enables accurate measurements of the molecular density, i.e., number of molecules per unit area. From the ratio of the mass density to the molecular density, one can determine the absolute value for the number average molecular weight. Assuming that the structure of brush molecules is uniform along the backbone, the length distribution should be virtually identical to the molecular weight distribution. Although we used only brush molecules for demonstration purpose, this approach can be applied for a large variety of molecular and colloidal species that can be visualized by a microscopic technique.