<br/>Surface modification of materials is important to achieve desired physical and chemical properties such as hydrophobicity and pH and is extremely important in applications such as dyeing performance of textiles, and antifouling or self-cleaning materials. Efficient and selective modification of such properties on a material surface is challenging, however, and can involve the use of expensive chemicals with negative impacts on the environment. Herein, we quantify the photochemistry of natural uronate containing polysaccharides in the presence of Iron (III) ions. We show that this reaction can occur in a variety of natural materials, and use the photochemical reaction between Fe(III) and carboxylates to alter the physical and chemical properties of materials such as cotton fabric and hydrogels. Specifically, the photochemistry of the Fe (III)-uronate system generates radical species during the reaction. By taking the advantage of this radical species generation, we modify the surface properties of selected polyuronate containing substrates with different acrylic monomers. The manipulation of the desired chemical and physical properties of the substrate is based on the choice of acrylate. This strategy provides a simple approach to design materials with different surface properties by using much cheaper naturally derived materials.<br/>

Harnessing Fe (III) carboxylate photochemistry for surface modification on materials

256th National Meeting (2018)

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