Patterned polymer brushes

Abstract

This critical review summarizes recent developments in the fabrication of patterned polymer brushes. As top-down lithography reaches the length scale of a single macromolecule, the combination with the bottom-up synthesis of polymer brushes by surface-initiated polymerization becomes one main avenue to design new materials for nanotechnology. Recent developments in surface-initiated polymerizations are highlighted along with diverse strategies to create patterned polymer brushes on all length scales based on irradiation (photo- and interference lithography, electron-beam lithography), mechanical contact (scanning probe lithography, soft lithography, nanoimprinting lithography) and on surface forces (capillary force lithography, colloidal lithography, Langmuir-Blodgett lithography) (116 references).

From Self-Assembled Monolayers to Coatings: Advances in the Synthesis and Nanobio Applications of Polymer Brushes

“…The advances in synthetic methodologies for both "grafting-to" and "grafting-from" approaches has led to newer ways to pattern polymer brushes by the top-down, bottom-up, or a combination of both methodologies [109,110]. Nealey and coworkers have shown a top-down method to create small periodic PS brush nanopatterns on a substrate by a lithographic processes including advanced lithography and O2 plasma etching [111][112][113].…”

Controlled Evaporative Self-Assembly of Poly(acrylic acid) in a Confined Geometry for Fabricating Patterned Polymer Brushes

“…2 The photoactive group of −COOH on patterned PAA could be initiated to grow polymer brushes by SIPGP upon being immersed in various monomer solutions (for example, styrene) and irradiated with an UV lamp. Before SIPGP, the PAA pattern is nearly invisible ( Figure 3A).…”

“…Therefore, exploiting simpler strategies to fabricate polymer brush morphologies is still more desirable and remains a challenge. 2 Recently, a method of the drying-mediated self-assembly via irreversible solvent evaporation of an unbound droplet solution containing nonvolatile solutes yielded intriguing complex patterns, which has attracted significant attention. 10−12 Although these patterns were created by the simple lithography and external field free means, they often lacked the regularity and high fidelity due to the flow instabilities within drying droplet.…”

Crafting positive/negative patterns and nanopillars of polymer brushes by photocatalytic lithography

“…This is especially true for the field of polymer brushes, ensembles of surface-tethered polymer chains, which, due to their high grafting density, maintain a considerably stretched conformation. 1,2 Their fast response to environmental changes makes polymer brushes the first choice to develop stimuli-responsive coatings. Making patterned polymer brushes with different functionalities (e.g.…”