Developments of the spin labelling study of polymers at interfaces

The spin labelling method has been used in a large variety of situations, in the broad field of polymers at solid interfaces. The relevance of the method is confirmed on linear neutral chains of poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) in well defined situations and compared with the simple theoretical calculations of a mean field theory or some scaling arguments. Both theories have their own strengths and weaknesses. Then the fact, that polymers at solid liquid interfaces are three components systems, is considered and successively the effect of varying the polymer architecture, the solid surface and the solvent is studied. In all these cases specific results are obtained by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) showing the usefulness and the versatility of the method.