Polymer Brush Formation Assisted by the Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Topological Supramolecules

Shuntaro Uenuma; Kimika Endo; Norifumi L Yamada; Hideaki Yokoyama; Kohzo Ito

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c18720

Polymer Brush Formation Assisted by the Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Topological Supramolecules

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Dec 22;13(50):60446-60453. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c18720. Epub 2021 Dec 7.

Authors

Shuntaro Uenuma^{1

2}, Kimika Endo¹, Norifumi L Yamada³, Hideaki Yokoyama¹, Kohzo Ito^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8561, Japan.
² Material Innovation Research Center (MIRC), Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8561, Japan.
³ Institute of Materials Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Ibaraki 319-1106, Japan.

PMID: 34874694
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c18720

Abstract

The development of methods for the polymer brush layer formation on material surfaces to improve the surface properties has been researched for decades. Here, we report a novel approach for the formation of a polymer brush layer on materials and the alteration of the surface properties using a pseudo-polyrotaxane nanosheet (PPRNS). In the PPRNS, β-cyclodextrin (CD) selectively covered the central poly(propylene oxide)₂₉ segment of the carboxyl-terminated poly(ethylene oxide)₇₅-b-poly(propylene oxide)₂₉-b-poly(ethylene oxide)₇₅ (COOH-EO₇₅PO₂₉EO₇₅) triblock copolymer to form columnar crystals. The EO chains of COOH-EO₇₅PO₂₉EO₇₅ then adopt polymer brush conformations and exhibit an oil-repellent property on the material surfaces. Based on the flexibility derived from the nanosheet structure, the PPRNS showed high adhesion to the Blu-ray disk substrate (1D bending), polystyrene spherical beads (2D bending), and random rough surface of pork skin. The PPRNS is expected to become a new method for obtaining polymer brush layers and improving the surface properties irrespective of the material type.

Keywords: X-ray reflectivity; nanosheet; neutron reflectivity; polymer brush; pseudo-polyrotaxane; supramolecular self-assembly; surface coating; topological supramolecule.