Surface Grafting via Photo-Induced Copper-Mediated Radical Polymerization at Extremely Low Catalyst Concentrations

Abstract

Surface-initiated photo-induced copper-mediated radical polymerization is employed to graft a wide range of polyacrylate brushes from silicon substrates at extremely low catalyst concentrations. This is the first time that the controlled nature of the reported process is demonstrated via block copolymer formation and re-initiation experiments. In addition to unmatched copper catalyst concentrations in the range of few ppb, film thicknesses up to almost 1 μm are achieved within only 1 h.

Keywords: copper-mediated polymerization; photo-induced polymerization; polymer brushes; reversible deactivation radical polymerization; spatial control.