

FOLLOWUS
a.Laboratory of Polymer and Soft Matter Dynamics, Experimental Soft Matter and Thermal Physics (EST), Universite libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
b.School of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China
c.Sustainable Materials Engineering (SUME), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, Brussels B-1050, Belgium
simone.napolitano@ulb.be
Received:21 July 2026,
Accepted:08 August 2026,
Online First:19 October 2026,
Published:2026-09
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Xu, T. Y.; Di Leva, C.; Song, Z. J.; Caporaletti, F.; Napolitano, S. A spectral view of polymer adsorption under nanoconfinement. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3837-9
Ting-Yu Xu, Chiara Di Leva, Zi-Jian Song, et al. A Spectral View of Polymer Adsorption under Nanoconfinement[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-8.
Xu, T. Y.; Di Leva, C.; Song, Z. J.; Caporaletti, F.; Napolitano, S. A spectral view of polymer adsorption under nanoconfinement. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3837-9 DOI:
Ting-Yu Xu, Chiara Di Leva, Zi-Jian Song, et al. A Spectral View of Polymer Adsorption under Nanoconfinement[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-8. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-026-3837-9.
The number of polymer chains irreversibly adsorbed onto a solid substrate decreases systematically in films thinner than roughly ten macromolecular radii of gyration
an effect attributed to the weakening of the van der Waals interaction under nanoconfinement. Here
we demonstrate that this phenomenology has a precise spectral signature. Within our recently developed framework
the adsorption kinetics are described as a superposition of thermally activated processes
and reducing the film thickness exclusively suppresses the weight of the loop-mediated component of the rate spectrum
leaving the slowest and fastest accessible adsorption rates invariant. The apparent growth rate in the logarithmic regime decreased in proportion to the adsorbed amount and
through the effective Hamaker constant
to the film geometry. Therefore
the rate spectrum is a topological property of the polymer melt
while the amount adsorbed through each pathway is set by the depth of the interfacial potential. Temperature and film geometry act as orthogonal control parameters
tuning the kinetics and adsorbed amount independently
which provides a microscopic basis for the rational design of adsorbed polymer layers.
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