Controlled grafting of polymer brushes on poly(vinylidene fluoride) films by surface‐initiated atom transfer radical polymerization

Abstract

Controlled grafting of well-defined polymer brushes on the poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) films was carried out by the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Surface-initiators were immobilized on the PVDF films by surface hydroxylation and esterification of the hydroxyl groups covalently linked to the surface with 2-bromoisobutyrate bromide. Homopolymer brushes of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and poly(ethylene glycol) monomethacrylate (PEGMA) were prepared by ATRP from the ␣-bromoester-functionalized PVDF surface. The chemical composition of the graft-functionalized PVDF surfaces was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and attenuated total reflectance (ATR)-FTIR spectroscopy. Kinetics study revealed a linear increase in the graft concentration of PMMA and PEGMA with the reaction time, indicating that the chain growth from the surface was consistent with a "controlled" or "living" process. The "living" chain ends were used as the macroinitiator for the synthesis of diblock copolymer brushes. Water contact angles on PVDF films were reduced by surface grafting of PEGMA and MMA.

Preparation and characterization of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) based ultrafiltration membranes using nano γ-Al2O3

“…Surface modification and blending techniques are mostly adapted due to their versatile controlling conditions. Surface modification methods include plasma [1][2][3], UV [4][5][6][7], electron beam surface induced grafting polymerization [8][9][10][11], and surface living/controlled radical polymerization [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Blending methods usually involve some amphiphilic copolymers, requiring to be synthesized elaborately through atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) [19][20][21] or reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) [3,22].…”

Investigation of perfluorinated proton exchange membranes prepared via a facile strategy of chemically combining poly(vinylphosphonic acid) with PVDF by means of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) grafts

“…FTIR spectra of alkaline treated PVDF (Fig. 2c) show that the broad absorption peaks between 3600 and 3000 cm −1 might be due to H-bonded -OH groups while those between 1740 and 1600 cm −1 can be associated with the strecthing vibrations of C=O and C=C groups in different molecular frames [18,33,[43][44][45]. Differing from that of the alkaline treated PVDF homopolymer, the grafted films, PVDF-g-PGMA, showed additional characteristic bands in the at 1735 cm −1 , attributable to the ester stretching mode of the grafted GMA segments.…”

PNIPAAm-grafted thermoresponsive microcarriers: Surface-initiated ATRP synthesis and characterization

“…The poly(GDMA-DMAEM) particles exhibit thermosensitive properties since DMAEM brushes give cationic character to the poly(GDMA) particles. Liu et al [27] controlled grafting of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and poly(ethylene glycol monomethacrylate) brushes on the poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) films by ATRP after immobilization of the surface-initiator by surface hydroxylation. In another study, Patrizi et al [28] prepared copolymers of PNIPAAm grafted dextran by reacting hydroxyl groups with 2-chloropropionyl chloride ATRP initiator.…”