Surface Wettability and Anti-biofouling Characteristics of High-density Polyelectrolyte Brushes

摘要

Soft interfaces offer fascinating opportunities for addressing numerous problems of both academic and industrial interest: high-quality, functional or protective coatings, composite materials, surface engineered particles, metal-organic interfaces, biological applications, mi-cro-patteming, colloids, nanoparticles, functional devices, etc. Polymers chemically grafted to the surface of substrates are typical soft interfaces known as polymer brushes. Surfaces covered with polyelectrolyte brushes, which are polymer brushes consisting of a polyelectrolyte, are particularly attractive because of their potential applications including adhesion, anti-fouling, and water lubrication systems. We started from 1) precise polymer synthesis, 2) polymer solution characterization, 3) preparation and characterization of polymer-grafted nanoparticle, and 4) preparation, characterization and functional properties of polymer brushes on fiat surfaces. In this study, various high-density polyelectrolyte brushes were prepared on initiator immobilized Si-wafer surfaces by surface-initiated ATRP (SI-ATRP). Wettability, anti-fouling and anti-biofouling behaviors of polymer brushes with various surface chemistries were characterized and the relationships between wettability and anti-fouling behaviors were discussed.