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Binary polymer brushes as a versatile tool to create stimuli responsive coatings

Petra Uhlmann 1Leonid Ionov 1Nikolay Houbenov 1Mirko Nitschke 1Karina Grundke 1Sergiy Minko 2Manfred Stamm 

1. Institute of Polymer Research, Dresden 01069, Germany
2. Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, United States

Abstract

Heterogeneous binary polymer brushes consist of an assembly of polymer chains of two incompatible polymers that are attached by one end to the surface with sufficient grafting density and have been investigated experimentally only for a short time. Those brushes can be used in the form of ultrathin polymeric layers as a versatile tool for surface engineering to tune physico-chemical surface characteristics as wettability, surface charge, chemical composition or morphology, and furthermore to create switchable and responsive surface properties1. For the fabrication of these layers "grafting from“ (as radical polymerization at the interface) and „grafting to“ (as tethering of the polymer chains from solution) methods were developed and investigated in detail.1
The amplification of the amplitude of switching (from superhydrophilic to ultrahydrophobic) by creating hierarchically structured surfaces2 will be explained as well as the creation of switchable surface structures by environmental responsive lithography3. Additionally examples will be given for the transfer of the concept of binary polymer brushes to particles, which may also have interesting perspectives for an application in the field of coatings.

[1] A. Sidorenko, S. Minko, K. Schenk-Meuser, H. Duschner, M. Stamm, Langmuir 1999, 15, 8349
[2] S. Minko, M. Müller, M. Motornov, M. Nitschke, K. Grundke, M. Stamm , J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 3896
[3] Ionov, L.; Minko, S.; Stamm, M.; Gohy, J. F.; Jérôme, R.; Scholl, A., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 8302-8306.

 

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Presentation: invited oral at E-MRS Fall Meeting 2005, Symposium E, by Petra Uhlmann
See On-line Journal of E-MRS Fall Meeting 2005

Submitted: 2005-05-18 12:37
Revised:   2009-06-07 00:44