Abstract
Polymer brushes have a great potential for controlling surface wetting properties. In this work we study the surface wettability in respect to water of diblock copolymer brushes with an outer block of the thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNiPAM) polymer and an inner hydrophobic block of 1H 1H 2H 2H-perfluorodecyl Acrylate (PPFDA) and with variable block lengths. Block copolymer brushes are synthesized by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. The conditions of synthesis; polymerization time of NiPAM, grafting density of change transfer agent (CTA) on the surface, amount of initiator and monomers were varied to produce brushes with different ratios of PNiPAM and PPFDA. Diblock copolymer brushes are characterized by Raman, XPS and Atomic Force Microscopy. Brushes with contact angles from 28 to 85 degrees are produced. The brushes with longer PPFDA blocks are the more hydrophobic. Contact angle values increase when raising temperature from 20 °C to 40 °C as for PNiPAM but always to higher contact angles than for the PNiPAM brush.
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