Combinatorial Polymer Science: Synthesis and Characterization

摘要

Combinatorial methodologies offer the ability to efficiently measure relevant chemical and physical properties over large regimes of variable space. We review recent work in the development of combinatorial methods for polymer synthesis and characterization. The combinatorial synthesis of polymers including fluorescent sensors, molecular imprint systems, dendrimers, and biodegradable polymers is presented. The fundamental characterization of polymer films and coatings with combinatorial methods is also discussed. We illustrate four new techniques for preparing continuous gradient polymer libraries with controlled variations in temperature, composition, thickness, and substrate surface energy. These libraries are used to characterize fundamental properties including polymer blend phase behavior, thin-film dewetting, block copolymer order-disorder transitions.