Multifunctional, complex polymers for functional and stimuli-responsive coatings

This Thesis describes the preparation and characterization of tailored polymer coatings with various architectures and patterns developed for specific applications. Functional and stimuli-responsive coatings, including poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(ferrocenylsilane) (PFS), were prepared via “grafting-from” and “grafting-to” approaches on various materials and patterned via inkjet printing. Hereby, we demonstrate the synergy of these techniques to fabricate corrosion-resistant coatings for aluminum surfaces and devices for chemical sensing and fluorescent patterns.
Furthermore, a deep understanding of the co-non-solvent-induced and temperature-induced conformational transition mechanisms of stimuli-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) brushes was achieved by investigating the distribution of the solvent molecules through the polymer film layer as well as via the analysis of the tribo-mechanical properties.
Intrigued by the versatility of the inkjet printing process, a series of a three components catechol-containing ATRP macroinitiators were synthesized via free radical polymerization (FRP). Preliminary results inspire our continuous effort to develop new catechol coupling chemistry based strategies that allows the wide spread utilization of readily applicable designer functional and stimuli-responsive coatings on nearly any surface.