Nanometric sieving of polymer coils by a lamellar liquid crystal: Surfactant AOT and polydimethylacrylamide
The liquid crystal formed by surfactant AOT/water mixtures in its lamellar mesophase at a spacing between lamellae, d, equal to 8 nm, is mixed with poly(dimethylacrylamide) (PDMAA) polymers of low molecular weight in the range M-n= 2-20 x 10(3); the polymers are synthesized by living radical polymerization. The lowest molecular weights do not affect d significantly, indicating that the polymer coi