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    Dispersity within Brushes Plays a Major Role in Determining Their Interfacial Properties: The Case of Oligoxazoline-Based Graft Polymers

    Year: 2021

    Journal: J. Am. Chem. Soc., Volume 143, NOV 17, page 19067–19077

    Authors: Romio, Matteo; Grob, Benjamin; Trachsel, Lucca; Mattarei, Andrea; Morgese, Giulia; Ramakrishna, Shivaprakash N.; Niccolai, Francesca; Guazzelli, Elisa; Paradisi, Cristina; Martinelli, Elisa; Spencer, Nicholas D.; Benetti, Edmondo M.

    Organizations: Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)

    Many synthetic polymers used to form polymerbrush films feature a main backbone with functional, oligomeric side chains. While the structure of such graft polymers mimics biomacromolecules to an extent, it lacks the monodispersity and structural purity present in nature. Here we demonstrate that sidechain heterogeneity within graft polymers significantly influences hydration and the occurrence of hydrophobic interactions in the subsequently formed brushes and consequently impacts fundamental interfacial properties. This is demonstrated for the case of poly(methacrylate)s (PMAs) presenting oligomeric side chains of different length (n) and dispersity. A precise tuning of brush structure was achieved by first synthesizing oligo(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) methacrylates (OEOXMAs) by cationic ring-opening polymerization (CROP), subsequently purifying them into discrete macromonomers with distinct values of n by column chromatography, and finally obtaining poly[oligo(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) methacrylate]s (POEOXMAs) by reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Assembly of POEOXMA on Au surfaces yielded graft polymer brushes with different side-chain dispersities and lengths, whose properties were thoroughly investigated by a combination of variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE), quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCMD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) methods. Side-chain dispersity, or dispersity within brushes, leads to assemblies that are more hydrated, less adhesive, and more lubricious and biopassive compared to analogous films obtained from graft polymers characterized by a homogeneous structure.
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