Shedding light on surfaces: using photons to transform and pattern material surfaces

The ultimate goal of surface modification is to quantitatively control surface properties by precise manipulation of surface chemical structure at the molecular level. Advances in the understanding of molecular design principles for soft matter surfaces can be combined with the available arsenal of interesting photochemical reactions to create an exciting paradigm for surface modification: the use of photons to both transform and pattern chemical functionality at soft matter surfaces. The success of the paradigm is predicated on the ability to design and synthesize "photochemical surface delivery vehicles," complex photoactive molecules that form stable surface monolayers and subsequently deliver photoactive moieties to the surface. Shedding light onto these smart, modified surfaces brings about a wide variety of precise photochemical reactions that are preprogrammed within the surface delivery vehicle. Surface chemical patterns are formed by exposure through a mask. Some photochemical surface transformation can be considered as "green" chemistry since only photons are required as reagents. In this review, we provide a brief tutorial on photochemistry fundamentals to illustrate the nature of possible photochemical surface reactions and discuss the principles of design for photochemical surface delivery vehicles. Applications of the paradigm drawn from a variety of fields emphasize the tremendous potential for photochemical surface transformation and patterning on both hard and soft substrates

Copper-free click chemistry for the in situ crosslinking of photodegradable star polymers

Bifunctional, fluorinated cyclooctynes were used for the in situ click crosslinking of azide-terminated photodegradable star polymers, yielding photodegradable polymeric model networks with well-defined structures and tunable gelation times

Core-Clickable PEG-Branch-Azide Bivalent-Bottle-Brush Polymers by ROMP: Grafting-Through and Clicking-To

The combination of highly efficient polymerizations with modular "click" coupling reactions has enabled the synthesis of a wide variety of novel nanoscopic tructures. Here we demonstrate the facile synthesis of a new class of clickable, branched nanostructures, polyethylene glycol (PEG)-branch-azide bivalent-brush polymers, facilitated by "graft-through" ring-opening metathesis polymerization of a branched norbornene-PEG-chloride macromonomer followed by halide-azide exchange. The resulting bivalent-brush polymers possess azide groups at the core near a polynorbornene backbone with PEG chains extended into solution; the structure resembles a unimolecular micelle. We demonstrate copper-catalyzed azide-alkre cycloaddition (CuAAC) "click-to" coupling of a photocleavable doxorubicin (DOX)-alkyne derivative to the azide core. The CuAAC coupling was quantitative across a wide range of nanoscopic sizes (similar to 6-similar to 50 nrn); UV photolysis of the resulting DOX-loaded materials yielded free DOX that was therapeutically effective against human cancer cells

Solid phase modular synthesis of polymacromer brushes and their isolation as molecular products by photocleavage from the substrate

We report a novel solid phase method for the sequential coupling of heterobifunctional macromonomers to form a new class of polymeric materials that we refer to as polymacromers. Starting from an azide functional substrate, α-azido, ώ-protected-alkyne macromonomers are added step-by step by thermally initiated click reactions. After each addition step, the terminal alkyne group is deprotected to allow addition of another macromonomer. The use of highly chemoselective click chemistry for the coupling reactions allows virtually any macromonomer to be employed, regardless of its chemical nature. The polymacromers may be left as polymer brushes on the substrate, or can be isolated as molecular products by photocleavage of an ortho-nitrobenzyloxycarbonyl (NBOC) linkage incorporated at the substrate interface. The method is illustrated by forming homopolymacromers by sequential coupling of poly(tert-butyl acrylate) macromonomers. The results of characterization of the polymacromer bushes by ellipsometry, contact angle analysis and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and direct measurements of the molecular weights of isolated products by gel permeation chromatography demonstrate that polymacromers can be prepared with a coupling efficiency approaching 100%

Azide Functional Monolayers Grafted to a Germanium Surface: Model Substrates for ATR-IR Studies of Interfacial Click Reactions

High-quality azide-functional substrates are prepared by a low temperature reaction of 11-bromoundecyltrichlorosilane with UV–ozone-treated germanium ATR-IR plates followed by nucleophilic substitution of the terminal bromine by addition of sodium azide. The resulting monolayer films are characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), and ellipsometry. XPS and ellipsometric thickness data correspond well to the results of molecular model calculations confirming the formation of a densely packed azide-functional monolayer. These azide-functional substrates enable interfacial “click” reactions with complementary alkyne-functional molecules to be studied <i>in situ</i> by ATR-IR. To illustrate their potential utility for kinetic studies we show that, in the presence of copper(I) catalyst, the azide-modified surfaces react rapidly and quantitatively with 5-chloro-pentyne to form triazoles via a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. Time-resolved ATR-IR measurements indicate that the interfacial click reaction is initially first order in azide concentration as expected from the reaction mechanism, with a rate constant of 0.034 min^–1, and then transitions to apparent second order dependence, with a rate constant of 0.017 min^–1/(chains/nm²), when the surface azide and triazole concentrations become similar, as predicted by Oyama et al. The reaction achieves an ultimate conversion of 50% consistent with the limit expected due to steric hindrance of the 5-chloro-pentyne reactant at the surface