Polymer brushes have been a topic of interest over the past two decades due to their increasing number of applications in areas such as lubrication and protective coatings, tailoring of surface electronic properties, stabilization of colloids, and improving biocompatibility. To date, polymer brush research and applications have been essentially limited to polymers prepared via chain growth polymerization techniques involving vinyl-based monomers. However, recently researchers have established a need to develop polymer brushes based on conjugated polymers for application in areas such as OPV, OLED, and biosensing. We have developed a new surface initiated polymerization technique for the preparation of aromatic polyamide brushes using the substituent effect chain growth polycondensation technique. This presentation will out line the methods used to design and synthesize these novel polymer brushes, in addition, to demonstrating their use as surface coatings for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes in the desalination of water.

Development and application of chain growth aromatic polyamide brushes

251st National Meeting (2016)

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