In the past years, polymer brushes have become of interest as smart surfaces due to their switching capabilities upon external stimuli like pH, salt concentration, temperature or kind of solvent. This behavior is very promising to be used in biomedical applications, such as control of protein adsorption and desorption.A detailed understanding of the polymers and their switching behavior is necessary in order to create suitable mixed polymer brush films with the desired switching capabilities.In this study, structural changes, swollen brush thickness and water content of PNIPAAm polymer brush films (poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)) are investigated at the solid/liquid interphase with in-situ infrared ellipsometry. Mixing polymers with different adsorption affinities, for example PNIPAAm with polymers like poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP), could create mixed brush films with tunable affinity, similar to the ones studied by Hoy et al[1].[1] O. Hoy et al. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2010 , 20, 2240�2247.

Temperature-dependent studies on the swelling behavior of thin polymer brush films with in situ infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry

245th National Meeting (2013)

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