During the last few decades, interest in amphiphilic polymers has increased steadily. In this work, the behavior of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic copolymer poly(acrylamide-b-N,N-dihexylacrylamide) (PADHA) at a solid/liquid interface has been studied to quantify adsorption at equilibrium. At the water/sandstone interface, the adsorption isotherm for PADHA show an unusual profile, characterized by the absence of a "plateau" region and a monotonic increase in the adsorbed amount with polymer concentration in the bulk. This particular adsorption profile could be explained by the formation of multiple layers caused by hydrophobic associations, the adsorbed layers being partly formed by chains that are not directly in contact with the surface.
Adsorption; amphiphilic copolymer; polyacrylamide
