C.J. Reese, R.J. Dickhudt, N. Conte, M.D. Shlafstein, V. Skovorodnev, P. Montgomery, S. Jung, E. Ambrosius, X. Guan, B. Anger, Y. Qi, X. Liu, S.G. Boyes
George Washington University,
United States
Keywords: polymer brushes, aromatic polyamides, coatings, anti-fouling
Summary:
Aromatic polyamides are high performance materials well known for their exceptional mechanical strength, thermal stability, and chemical resistance. Despite these desirable properties, few applications using aromatic polyamides as surface coatings have been explored due to most of these polymers being insoluble in organic solvents and their extremely high melting temperatures. However, new polymerization techniques have been developed to overcome this insolubility allowing applications such as reverse osmosis membranes and gas separation membranes to be developed. Recently, our group developed the surface-initiated chain growth condensation (CGC) polymerization via substituent effects for the synthesis of well-defined, functional aromatic polyamide brushes. Using this technique, thin polymer films demonstrating the desired properties of aromatic polyamides with applications as high-performance coatings, anti-fouling surfaces, fouling release coatings, and stimuli-responsive brushes have been synthesized. This presentation will outline the development of the surface-initiated CGC technique and demonstrate its application in the development of next generation polymer brushes.