Surface plasmon resonance methodology for monitoring polymerization kinetics and morphology changes of brushes-evaluated with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2017

Polymerization from surfaces and the resulting “brushes” have many uses in the development of novel materials and functional interfaces. However, it is difficult to accurately monitor the polymerization rate, which limits the use of polymer brushes in applications where control of thickness is desirable. We present a new methodology based on angular surface plasmon resonance (SPR) which provides real-time measurements of the thickness evolution during atom transfer radical polymerization, using poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) as an example. Our data analysis shows that the growth is linear with a rate of ?20 nm/min in a water/methanol mixture up to ?100 nm after which chain termination gradually reduces the growth rate. Further, we introduce an improved method in SPR which makes it possible to determine changes in brush height and refractive index during switching of responsive polymers. The ratio between heights in the coil to globule transition at 32 °C in water was found to be almost 5, independent of the initial absolute height up to ?200 nm, in agreement with theory. Complementary quartz crystal microbalance and atomic force microscopy data confirm the accuracy of our results. With the methodology presented here the established SPR technique can be used for quantitative characterization of surface-initiated polymerization and responsive polymer brushes.

Polymer brushes

Surface plasmon resonance

Surface initiated polymerization

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)

Författare

Gustav Emilsson

Chalmers, Kemi och kemiteknik, Tillämpad kemi

Rafael L. Schoch

Weizmann Institute of Science

Biozentrum University of Basel

Philipp Oertle

Biozentrum University of Basel

Kunli Xiong

Chalmers, Kemi och kemiteknik, Tillämpad kemi

Roderick Y H Lim

Biozentrum University of Basel

Andreas Dahlin

Chalmers, Kemi och kemiteknik, Tillämpad kemi

Applied Surface Science

0169-4332 (ISSN)

Vol. 396 384-392

Ämneskategorier

Annan fysik

DOI

10.1016/j.apsusc.2016.10.165

Mer information

Skapat

2017-10-08