Controlled sub-10-nanometer poly(N-isopropyl-acrylamide) layers grafted from silicon by atom transfer radical polymerization

Andreas S. Schulz, Hubert Gojzewski, Jurriaan Huskens, Willem L. Vos, G. Julius Vancso* (Corresponding Author)

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)
225 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) was used to graft poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) brush layers with a controllable thickness in the 10-nm range from silicon substrates. The rate of polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide was tuned by the [Cu(II)]0/[Cu(I)]0 ratio between the deactivating and activating species. The polymer layer thickness was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and ellipsometry. PNIPAM layers with a dry thickness between 5.5 and 16 nm were obtained. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) confirmed that the chemical structure is PNIPAM brushes. Analysis of the AFM data showed that our procedure leads to polymer grafts in the "mushroom-to-brush" transition regime.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)806-813
Number of pages8
JournalPolymers for advanced technologies
Volume29
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2018

Keywords

  • 2019 OA procedure
  • Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
  • Polymer brushes
  • Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS)
  • Atom transfer radical polymerization

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