Temperature dependence of volume and surface properties of thermo-and photo-responsive polymer bueshes

Zhuang, Pengyu
(2016)

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Authors
  • Zhuang, PengyuUCLouvain
    author
Supervisors
Jonas, Alain
 ;
Glinel, Karine
Abstract
This work focuses on the temperature dependent volume and surface hydrophilicity of dense polymer brushes, which are assemblies of macromolecules densely grafted on a surface. Hydrophilicity refers to the affinity of water for polymer molecules, measured by the degree of swelling of the brush by water (volume hydrophilicity) or by a contact angle of water on the brush surface (surface hydrophilicity). A finer understanding of volume and surface hydrophilicity of polymer brushes is still needed as a function of environmental parameters, especially for temperature- and photo-responsive brushes, in order to put them into practical applications in biological and biomedical fields. In this work, several representative homopolymer brushes of various volume properties, including temperature-responsive polymer brushes with a collapse transition temperature close to physiological conditions, are synthesized by surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). Then, their volume and surface hydrophilicities depending on temperature are studied in water, leading to an elucidation of the relationship between volume and surface hydrophilicities. The results reveals that the swelling degree of a temperature-responsive polymer brush shows a gradual but strong decrease with temperature before the brush totally collapses, whereas its surface hydrophilicity changes marginally with temperature across the collapse transition. In contrast, both the surface and volume hydrophilicities of hydrophilic homopolymer brushes vary little with temperature; however, they are not correlated together.
Affiliations
  • Institution iconUCLouvainSST/IMCN/BSMA - Bio and soft matter

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Zhuang, P. (2016). Temperature dependence of volume and surface properties of thermo-and photo-responsive polymer bueshes. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/179774