Scalable air-tolerant μL-volume synthesis of thick poly(SPMA) brushes using SI-ARGET-ATRP

We present a straightforward procedure for preparing thick (up to 300 nm) poly(3-sulfopropyl methacrylate) brushes using SI-ARGET-ATRP by conducting the reaction in a fluid film between the substrate and a coverslip. This method is advantageous in a number of ways: it does not require deoxygenation of the reaction solution, and the monomer conversion is much higher than usual since only a minimal amount of solution (microliters) is used, resulting in a tremendous reduction (~50x) of wasted reagents. Moreover, this method is particularly suited for grafting brushes to large substrates.