Stimuli-responsive polymers attached on nanoparticles or flat substrates are known to tremendously influence surface properties leading to so-called smart surfaces. Common external trigger can be the change of solvent, light, temperature or ionic strength. Compared to these classical stimuli, the electrical field or using redox reagents as external trigger are less investigated. Especially redox-responsive polymers attracted a lot of attention in the last decade. The most prominent redox couple in such polymers is the ferrocene/ferrocenium moiety which allows a fast and reversible switching. While oxidizing the ferrocene moieties (electro)chemically, the polymer chains undergo a remarkable transition from hydrophobic to hydrophilic accompanied by an induction of charge. The ferrocene oxidation/reduction cycles could be utilized for a responsive release of a dye from patchy nanocapsules,1 for reversible catalysis modulation,2 for switching the surface wettability3 and for ion-selective permselectivity through nano porous channels.4  The design of ferrocene-containing polymers and amphiphilic block copolymers bearing the lateral redox-active motif is reported. Furthermore, surface immobilization was investigated using surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization �grafting from� (ATRP) and �grafting onto� techniques by using end functionalization of ferrocene-containing polymers.2   These results point towards the importance of redox-active polymers to manipulate fast and reversibly the surface properties for applications in catalysis, membrane gating, sensing and a selective release. [1] Staff, R. H.; Gallei, M.*; Mazurowski, M.; Rehahn, M.; Berger, R.; Landfester, K.; Crespy*, D. ACS Nano 2012,  6, 9042-9049.[2] J. Elbert, J. Mersini, N. Vilbrandt, C. Lederle, M. Kraska, M. Gallei*, B. St�hn, H. Plenio, M. Rehahn, Macromolecules 2013 , 46, 4255-4267.[3] J. Elbert, M. Gallei*, C. R�ttiger, A. Brunsen, H. Didzoleit, B. St�hn, M. Rehahn, Organometallics 2013 , DOI:  10.1021/om400468p.[4] J. Elbert, M. Gallei*, A. Brunsen*, F. Krohm, H. Didzoleit, B. St�hn, M. Rehahn, , Adv. Funct. Mater. 2013 , accepted.

Redox-responsive ferrocene-containing polymers: Synthesis, immobilization and applications

247th National Meeting (2014)

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