A Single-Component Inimer Containing Cross-Linkable
Ultrathin Polymer Coating for Dense Polymer Brush Growth
- Publication date
- Publisher
Abstract
We have developed a highly versatile
universal approach to grow
polymer brushes from a variety of substrates with high grafting density
by using a single-component system. We describe a random copolymer
which consists of an inimer, <i>p</i>-(2-bromoisobutyloylmethyl)styrene
(BiBMS), copolymerized with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) synthesized
by reversible addition–fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT)
polymerization. Thermal cross-linking created a mat that was stable
during long exposure in organic solvent even with sonication or during
Soxhlet extraction. The absolute bromine density was determined via
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to be 1.86 ± 0.12 Br atoms/nm<sup>3</sup>. The ratio of experimental density to calculated absolute
initiator density suggests that ∼25% of the bromine is lost
during cross-linking. Surface-initiated ATRP (SI-ATRP) was used to
grow PMMA brushes on the substrate with sacrificial initiator in solution.
The brushes were characterized by ellipsometry, XPS, and atomic force
microscopy (AFM) to determine thickness, composition, and homogeneity.
By correlating the molecular weight of polymer grown in solution with
the brush layer thickness, a high grafting density of 0.80 ±
0.06 chains/nm<sup>2</sup> was calculated. By synthesizing the copolymer
before cross-linking on the substrate, this single-component approach
avoids any issues with blend miscibility as might be present for a
multicomponent curable mixture, while resulting in high chain density
on a range of substrates