Figure 9.

Effects of chain cohesiveness and density on the morphology of FG nup surface layers. Left: FG nup layer heights measured for three different FG nups (orange is the most cohesive one (nup98), blue is the less cohesive one (Nsp1) and green is the even less cohesive mutant of blue. The measured height is consistent between atomic force microscopy (AFM), quartz-crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Reproduced from [108], permission pending. Right: Increasing the grafting distance decreases the layer height, in accord with theoretical expectations. Dots are experimental data for different (human) FG nups measured using surface plasmon resonance (SPR). All measured FG nups layers behave as cohesive polymer brushes and lie between the theoretical predictions for the pure repulsive brush (solid line) and the fully compact brush (dotted line). Dots show experimental data. Different colors correspond to different FG nup types. Reproduced from [173], permission pending.