. (2011) 'Electrospinning superhydrophobic bers using surface segregating end-functionalized polymer additives. ', Macromolecules., 44 (16). pp. 6461-6470. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ma200852zPublisher's copyright statement:This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in nal form in Macromolecules, copyright c 2011 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the nal edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ma200852z. Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. RECEIVED DATE (to be automatically inserted after your manuscript is accepted if requiredaccording to the journal that you are submitting your paper to) † Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.ABSTRACT: We describe here a facile route for the in situ modification of the surface properties of fibres produced by electrospinning polystyrene containing small quantities of compatible polymer additives, end functionalized with 1-3 fluoroalkyl groups. Such additives undergo spontaneous surface segregation during the electrospinning process resulting in fibres with low surface energy, fluorine rich, superhydrophobic surfaces. Surface properties were analyzed using static contact angle measurements (with water as the contact fluid) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We report the effect of a number of parameters on the surface properties of the resulting polystyrene fibres including the molecular weight and concentration of functionalized additive, the number of fluoroalkyl groups, the effect of annealing and spinning solvent. The majority of the fibres were successfully produced using THF as the spinning 2 solvent and fibres with a contact angle of approximately 150 degrees were attainable. However, preliminary investigations using a blend of polystyrene and 4% by weight of such an additive, endfunctionalized with 3 C 8 F 17 group in a mixed solvent of DMF/THF (3:1 v/v) resulted in a mat of fibres with a superhydrophobic surface and a contact angle of 158 degrees.

(2013) 'Synthesis and characterisation of end-functionalised poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) additives by reversible additionfragmentation transfer polymerisation.', Polymer chemistry., 4 (9). pp. 2815-2827. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c3py00041aPublisher's copyright statement:Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract. We describe herein the synthesis of a series of multi-end functionalized poly(Nvinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) additives bearing two or three C 8 F 17 fluoroalkyl (CF) groups, designed as additives to modify surface properties. The PVP additives were prepared by reversible addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT) polymerization, with end functionality imparted via the use of CF functionalized chain transfer agents (CTAs). The resulting PVP additives, when used in modest quantities dispersed in thin films of an unmodified PVP matrix significantly reduce the surface energy, rendering their surfaces more hydrophobic and lipophobic. This is achieved by virtue of the low surface energy of the pendant C 8 F 17 end groups which cause the additive to spontaneously surface segregate during the spin coating process. The resulting thin films have been characterized by static contact angle measurements using dodecane as the contact fluid, and the impact of additive molecular weight, matrix molecular weight, the number of CF groups and additive concentration upon surface properties is reported herein. Significant increases in contact angle were observed with increasing additive concentration, up to a critical aggregation concentration (CAC). Increasing the number of CF groups (from 2 to 3); reducing additive molecular weight or increasing the matrix molecular weight, resulted in increased contact angles and hence surface lipophobicity. Rutherford backscattering (RBS) analysis was performed on films containing varying concentrations of additive, in order to quantitatively measure the nearsurface fluorine concentration of these films. The results of these experiments were in excellent agreement with those obtained by contact angle analysis, confirming the surface activity and low surface energy of the additives.