Scratch-Resistant Porous Polymer Coatings with Enhanced Adhesion to Planar and Curved Substrates

Abstract

Porous polymer coatings are useful for a broad range of applications including textiles, membranes, and implants. For practical applications, it is critical to have good adhesion between the substrate and the porous polymer coating. We report a solvent-free fabrication technique to create porous polymer coatings with excellent adhesion to a wide range of substrates including rigid, flexible, planar, and curved surfaces. These robust porous coatings can withstand tape tests and scratch tests. The porous coatings are fabricated by polymerization of three monomers: methacrylic acid (MAA) serves as the template for polymerization, glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) promotes adhesion via epoxide functional groups, and ethylene glycol diacrylate (EGDA) improves mechanical strength through cross-linking. An additional dense base layer of poly­(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) serves to anchor the porous coating to the substrate to further improve adhesion. The porous structure of the coating and the adhesion to the substrate were retained after soaking in isopropyl alcohol, methanol, and acetone. The coatings were applied to silicon, polynorbornene rubber, and stainless-steel to demonstrate the versatility of the process. Our solventless fabrication process is versatile and scalable and therefore provides an environmentally friendly alternative to liquid-phase fabrication methods.

UV-Assisted Li+-Catalyzed Radical Grafting Polymerization of Vinyl Ethers: A New Strategy for Creating Hydrolysis-Resistant and Long-Lived Polymer Brushes as a “Smart” Surface Coating

“…It is noteworthy that after the PVE brushes grown from the substrate, the peaks of C, Si, and O shifted to some extent, as shown in Figure A–C. The deconvolution of the C 1s signal clearly shows four different components with binding energies of about 284.23, 284.68, 285.21 and 285.78 eV, attributed to ((CH 3 )–O−) n , −C­(O)­C­(CH 2 )­CH 3 –, −CH­(C­(O)­OCH 3 )–, and −(CH 2 CH 2 ) n , respectively, in Figure D. , Additionally, the Si signal can be deconvoluted into four peaks at about 101.13, 102.1, 102.49, and 103.1 eV, assigned to (Si­(OCH 2 )­CH 3 −) n , -Si­(CH 3 ) 2 O-, (−CH 2 -Si­(OCH 3 ) 3 −) n , and SiO 1.78 in Figure E. , Moreover, the characteristic O signals at 531.72, 532.15, and 532.64 eV correspond to −C­(O)­CHC­(O), (−CH 2 CH­(C­(O)­CH 3 )−) n , and −OCH 2 CH 3 -OH in Figure F . In brief, these results confirm the successful chemical tethering of PVE brushes on the substrates.…”

Synthesis of pH-Responsive Polymer Sponge Coatings and Freestanding Films via Vapor-Phase Deposition

“…Freestanding porous polymer films have applications as filters, membranes, tissue scaffolds, and drug delivery systems. , The spongelike structure is advantageous for biological applications because high porosity and pore interconnectivity allow for high drug loading capacity. , To fabricate freestanding polymer sponges that have pH-dependent swelling, the crosslinker molecule ethylene glycol diacrylate (EGDA) was introduced simultaneously with MAA during the fabrication process to form chemical crosslinks to prevent dissolution. It has been shown that increasing the degree of crosslinking with EGDA improves mechanical properties. , We have previously shown that crosslinking with EGDA increases the mechanical strength of the porous pillared PMAA coating to prevent cracking of the coating after thermal annealing when deposited on flexible substrates such as polynorbornene rubber . For this study and for practical bioapplications, a limited degree of crosslinking is preferred to prevent dissolution while maintaining the properties of the primary polymer .…”

“…For applications such as oil/water separation and wound dressings, , it is important for the porous coating to have good adhesion to the underlying substrate. We have previously shown that we can increase the adhesion of the pillared coatings shown in Figure a to underlying substrates through the incorporation of the epoxide-containing glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) monomer into the fabrication process . We examined whether this approach could also work to enhance the adhesion of sponge coatings to the underlying substrate.…”

“…It has been shown that increasing the degree of crosslinking with EGDA improves mechanical properties. 36,37 We have previously shown that crosslinking with EGDA increases the mechanical strength of the porous pillared PMAA coating to prevent cracking of the coating after thermal annealing when deposited on flexible substrates such as polynorbornene rubber. 36 For this study and for practical bioapplications, a limited degree of crosslinking is preferred to prevent dissolution while maintaining the properties of the primary polymer.…”

Robust Vapor-Deposited Antifouling Fluoropolymer Coatings for Stainless Steel Polymerization Reactor Components

“…These results are consistent with studies that have shown that the adhesion of acrylic polymers is improved by cross-linking. 39,40 In addition to increasing the robustness of the polymer coatings, the incorporation of EGDA into the coatings allows for hydrogen bonding between the ethylene glycol polar functionalities and the hydroxyl groups of the metal oxide layer of the stainless steel.…”