Cells naturally grow brushes from the bottom up; allowing for very uniform and mono-dispersed surface brushes. Surface attached polymer brushes have been shown to alter the wetting properties of surfaces as well reduce the fouling, adhesion, and binding of biomolecules. Growing polymer brushes on commercially relevant surfaces has been a challenge, however, and there is a need for more effective methods of growing these polymers. The two methods currently used are “grafting-from” and “grafting-to”, but these methods often result in a low grafting density or brushes with large a dispersity in length. Here we present a third method for growing polymers from the bottom up that we term “passing-through”. In this work an ATRP initiator functionalized rubber sheet is swollen in monomer, the monomer then diffuses out of the rubber “passing through” the initiator during propagation. As a result, shorter polymer chains see a higher monomer concentration than longer chains, creating a self-correcting mechanism to polymerize the chains on the surface more uniformly and with high grafting density. This enhances the surface properties of the rubber. Depending on the monomer chosen, the surface brushes can later be functionalized. We show that our approach creates more uniform coverage than other methods and stretching and compression of the rubber does not damage or delaminate the surface modification.

Biomimetic surface modification of rubber with polymer brushes by “passing through” polymerization

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.