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Covalently tethered comb‐like polymer brushes on hydrogen‐terminated Si (100) surface via consecutive aqueous atom transfer radical polymerization of methacrylates
Author(s) -
Zhai Guangqun,
Cao Y.,
Gao J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.24698
Subject(s) - atom transfer radical polymerization , methacrylate , polymer chemistry , monomer , materials science , polymer , ethylene glycol , polymerization , aqueous solution , chemistry , organic chemistry , composite material
The hydrogen‐terminated Si (100) (SiH surface) was functionalized by coupling with 4‐vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) to form a SiVBC surface, which serves as macroinitiators for the surface‐initiated aqueous atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and poly(ethylene glycol)methacrylate (PEGMA) to prepare SiVBC g PHEMA and SiVBC g PPEGMA substrates, respectively. The ellipsometric results revealed that the surface‐initiated ATRP of both PHEMA and PPEGMA brushes proceeded in a controlled fashion. By adjusting the monomer concentration, an eccentric polymer thickness dependence on the initial monomer concentration [ M ] 0 was observed for both HEMA and PEGMA, i.e., in the dilute regime, the thickness of the polymer film increases with the increase in [ M ] 0 ; however, beyond critical [ M ] 0 , the thickness deceases gradually with the further increase. Such an eccentricity was tentatively correlated to the counteractive combination of the increase in [ M ] 0 and decrease in the apparent polymerization rate constant. Both SiVBC g PHEMA and SiVBC g PPEGMA substrates were esterified for the subsequent surface‐initiated ATRP, resulting in corresponding comb‐like brushes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 2590–2599, 2006