T. Sato, R. Hönes, C. Urata, A. Hozumi
AIST,
Japan
Keywords: (super)hydrophilicity, polymer blushes, SI-ATRP
Summary:
We report preparation of practical-size (super)hydrophilic surfaces using polymer brushes in air. In this study, we newly developed a facile and reproducible preparation method of initiator layers for surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) using a simple sol-gel solution of (chloromethyl)phenylethyl)trimethoxysilane and tetraethoxysilane. Highly smooth and transparent initiator layers could be formed on various inorganic/organic substrates via a spin-, wire-bar- or roll-to-roll coating process without any marked change in surface morphology or bulk properties at room temperature [1]. Combining the advantages of this sol-gel approach and subsequent “paint on”-ATRP [2] using a wide variety of waterborne monomers, we have succeeded in the formation of (super)hydrophilic polymer blushes on large-scale real-life substrates (50 × 50 cm2) under ambient conditions (room temperature and open to the air) without any complicated apparatuses and reaction conditions. REFERENCES 1) A. Hozumi, et al., Macromolecules, Accepted. 2) A. Hozumi, et al., ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 6 (2014) 11864−11868.