Polymer Brush Films with Varied Grafting and Cross-Linking Density via SI-ATRP

List of Content
List of Figures 9
List of Tables 15
Abstract 19

1 Motivation 21
2 Introduction to Polymer Brushes 27
2.1 Surface Initiated Polymerization (SIP) 28
2.1.1 Photoiniferter-mediated Polymerization (PMP) 28
2.1.2 Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) 29
2.2 Self-Assembled Monolayer (SAM) 31
2.3 SAMs by Micro-Contact Printing (-CP) 32
2.4 Variation of Polymer Brushes 35
2.4.1 Grafting Density 35
2.4.2 Cross-linking Density 36
3 Characterization Methods 37
3.1 Contact Angle (CA) Measurements 37
3.2 Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy 39
3.3 Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) 39
4 Experimental Part 43
4.1 Materials 43
4.1.1 Initiator 43
4.1.2 Polymers 44
4.2 Preparation 45
4.2.1 Preparation of Gold Substrates 45
4.2.2 SAMs 47
4.2.3 Micro-Contact Printing (-CP) 47
4.2.4 Preparation of Polymer Brushes 48
4.3 Characterization 49
4.3.1 Contact Angle (CA) Measurements 49
4.3.2 Ellipsometry 50
4.3.3 Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy 50
4.3.4 Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) 51
5 Results and Discussion 53
5.1 Polymer Brushes 53
5.1.1 Polymerization Kinetics 53
5.1.2 Grafting Density 60
5.1.3 Cross-linking Density 68
5.2 Polymer Brush Analysis by AFM 72
5.2.1 Surface Morphology. 74
5.2.2 Thickness 81
5.2.3 Wettability 84
5.2.4 Mechanical Properties 87
6 Discussion, Conclusions and Outlook 99
7 References 103
8 Appendix 107
8.1 PAAm Brushes via PMP 107
8.1.1 Iniferter 107
8.1.2 Modification of Silicon Substrates with Iniferter 110
8.1.3 Construction of the UV-LED setup 112
8.1.4 Preparation of Polymer Brushes 113
8.2 PAAm Brushes via ATRP 115