Surface Nanostructures Based on Assemblies of Polymer Brushes

Abstract

Studies on the fabrication of hierarchical surface nanostructures have significantly promoted the development of materials with new surface properties and functionalities. In this Minireview, progress on the fabrication of surface nanostructures based on surface organization of polymer brushes are outlined. In the past decades, self-assemblies of polymer brushes, including homopolymer, block-copolymer and mixed-polymer brushes, have aroused great interest in the fields of chemistry and materials science. Recent studies demonstrate that surface co-assemblies of polymer brushes and free polymer chains on solid surfaces are considered as an efficient approach to the preparation of hierarchical nanostructures. Some typical surface nanostructures and properties achieved through surface co-assembly approach are reviewed in this article. Meanwhile, the fundamental problems in the co-assembly approach are discussed and the potential applications of the hierarchical surface nanostructures are presented.

Keywords: block copolymers; nanostructures; polymer brushes; silica particles; surface assembly.