The adsorption of polymers on smooth or atomistically flat substrates has been a topic of study for decades, and such systems are well-characterized. However, there is little knowledge of the complex interfaces created by adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces: these are fundamental to numerous scientific and industrial systems, including organic optoelectronics, polymer–matrix composites, protein attachment, biomimetics, lubrication, and catalysis. Focusing on physical inhomogeneities, this paper presents an overview of the field of polymer adsorption on rough surfaces, and seeks to elucidate some of the relevant molecular mechanisms. Monte Carlo simulations are employed to study freely rotating chains adjacent to self-affine substrates, exploring the influence of surface fractal dimension and amplitude. The adsorbed polymers are characterized by density profiles and chain topologies evaluated parallel and perpendicular to the nominal surface. Our results reveal chain attachment and film structure can be controlled solely by manipulating entropic factors such as surface physical heterogeneities and adsorbate molecular weight distributions.

数十年来，研究人员一直将聚合物吸附在光滑或原子平坦的基底上，并且这类系统的特性十分突出。但是，对于异质表面吸附所产生的复杂界面知之甚少：这些对于许多科学和工业系统都是至关重要的，包括有机光电，聚合物-基质复合材料，蛋白质附着，仿生，润滑和催化作用。着重于物理不均匀性，本文概述了聚合物在粗糙表面上的吸附领域，并试图阐明一些相关的分子机理。蒙特卡洛模拟用于研究与自仿射基底相邻的自由旋转链，探讨表面分形维数和振幅的影响。吸附的聚合物的特征是密度分布和链拓扑结构平行于和垂直于标称表面进行评估。我们的结果表明，仅可通过控制熵因素（例如表面物理异质性和吸附物分子量分布）来控制链的附着和膜结构。