Figure 1.
A molecular bottle-brush is a branched macromolecule consisting of a exible backbone and many side chains of size R attached to it. Each side chain contains N monomers and the spacer between neighboring attachment points has average size d and consists of m monomers. Molecular brushes with a high grafting density of the side chains can adopt different conformations, including: (a) a cylindrical worm-like conformation in solutions and (b) a at ribbon with a tent-like cap on strongly attracting substrates. In this paper, one analyzes the following molecular dimensions: radius of the cylinder R, length d of the spacer between neighboring side chains, width R1 and height h1 of the first layer (ribbon), and width R2 and height h2 of the second layer (cap).