Controlled Synthesis of Polymer Brushes via Polymer Single Crystal Templates

A novel synthetic method of polymer brushes using polymer single crystals (PSCs) as solid-state templates is introduced in this study. PSC has a quasi-2D lamellae structure with polymer chains fold back-and-forth perpendicular to the lamellae surfaces. During crystallization, the chain ends are excluded from the unit cell onto the lamellae surfaces, which makes the material extremely versatile in its functionality. Such structure holds the unique capability to harvest nanoparticles, or being immobilized onto macroscopic flat surfaces. After dissolving PSCs in good solvent, polymer brushes are chemically tethered on either nanoparticles or flat macroscopic surfaces. Because the chain-folding structure can be conveniently tailored by changing the molecular weight of polymer and the crystallization temperature, the thickness, grafting density and morphology of resulted polymer brushes can be precisely controlled. As a model system, poly(ε-caprolactone) with thiol or alkoxysilane terminal groups was used, and polymer brushes were successfully prepared on both nanoparticles and glass/Au flat surfaces. The structure-property relationships of the as-prepared polymer brushes were studied in detail using multiple characterization techniques. First of all, when functionalizing nanoparticles, by engineering the chain-folding structure of the PSCs, interesting complex nanostructures can be formed by nanoparticles including Janus nanoparticles and nanoparticle dimers. These unique structures render hybrid nanoparticles very interesting responsive behavior which have been studied in detail in this dissertation. When grafted onto a flat surface on the other hand, not only the molecular weight and grafting density can be precisely controlled, the tethering points of a single polymer chain can also be conveniently tailored, resulting polymer brushes with either tail or loop structures. Such difference in brush structure can significantly alter the properties of functional surface. By using atomic force microscopy based force spectroscopy (AFM-FS) and macroscale shear adhesion measurements, it is thus demonstrated that when polymer loops are grafted, the surface could exhibit much stronger adhesion compared with regular polymer tails when free-dangling polymer chains are allowed to interact with the surface, which is believed to mimic the Velcro-like behavior where polymer loops can withhold strong entanglement with free chain ends upon breaking of the physical bonding.Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering -- Drexel University, 201