Simple Benchtop Approach to Polymer Brush Nanostructures Using Visible-Light-Mediated Metal-Free Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

Emre H Discekici; Christian W Pester; Nicolas J Treat; Jimmy Lawrence; Kaila M Mattson; Benjaporn Narupai; Edward P Toumayan; Yingdong Luo; Alaina J McGrath; Paul G Clark; Javier Read de Alaniz; Craig J Hawker

doi:10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00004

Simple Benchtop Approach to Polymer Brush Nanostructures Using Visible-Light-Mediated Metal-Free Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

ACS Macro Lett. 2016 Feb 16;5(2):258-262. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00004. Epub 2016 Feb 2.

Authors

Emre H Discekici^{1

2}, Christian W Pester^{1

2}, Nicolas J Treat^{1

2}, Jimmy Lawrence^{1

2}, Kaila M Mattson^{1

2}, Benjaporn Narupai^{1

2}, Edward P Toumayan^{1

2}, Yingdong Luo^{1

2}, Alaina J McGrath^{1

2}, Paul G Clark^{1

2}, Javier Read de Alaniz^{1

2}, Craig J Hawker^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ †Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, ‡Materials Research Laboratory, §Materials Department, and ⊥Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States.
² The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan 48674, United States.

PMID: 35614689
DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00004

Abstract

The development of an operationally simple, metal-free surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) based on visible-light mediation is reported. The facile nature of this process enables the fabrication of well-defined polymer brushes from flat and curved surfaces using a "benchtop" setup that can be easily scaled to four-inch wafers. This circumvents the requirement of stringent air-free environments (i.e., glovebox), and mediation by visible light allows for spatial control on the micron scale, with complex three-dimensional patterns achieved in a single step. This robust approach leads to unprecedented access to brush architectures for nonexperts.