Abstract
Silicon wafers as semiconductors are essential components of integrated circuits in electronic devices. For this reason, modification of the silicon surface is an important factor in the manufacturing of new hybrid materials applied in micro- and nanoelectronics. Herein, copolymer brushes of hydrophilic poly(2-hydroxyethyl acrylate) (PHEA) and hydrophobic poly(tert-butyl acrylate) (PtBA) were grafted from silicon wafers via simplified electrochemically mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (seATRP) according to a surface-initiated approach. The syntheses of PHEA-b-PtBA copolymers were carried out with diminished catalytic complex concentration (successively 25 and 6 ppm of Cu). In order to optimize the reaction condition, the effect of the addition of a supporting electrolyte was investigated. A controlled increase in PHEA brush thickness was confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Various other parameters including contact angles and free surface energy (FSE) for the modified silicon wafer were presented. Furthermore, the effect of the presence of a sacrificial initiator in solution on the thickness of the grafted brushes was reported. Successfully fabricated inorganic–organic hybrid nanomaterials show potential application in biomedicine and microelectronics devices, e.g., biosensors.
Highlights
Surface-grafted polymer brushes are the systems of macromolecules tethered by one end to a surface sufficiently densely for the chains to adopt extended conformations
Interesting are the techniques of reversible-deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP), allowing the control of the density and length of surface-grafted macromolecules at the same time leading to the formation of complex polymer brush architectures, rising from the initiation site attached to the surface according to the grafting from approach [6,7,8,9,10]
The atomic force microscopy (AFM) results highlighted the beneficial impact of the sacrificial initiator on the growth of the poly(2-hydroxyethyl acrylate) (PHEA) brushes
Summary
Surface-grafted polymer brushes are the systems of macromolecules tethered by one end to a surface sufficiently densely for the chains to adopt extended conformations. Interesting are the techniques of reversible-deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP), allowing the control of the density and length of surface-grafted macromolecules at the same time leading to the formation of complex polymer brush architectures, rising from the initiation site attached to the surface according to the grafting from approach [6,7,8,9,10]. The grafting from method uses the presence of a polymerization initiator connected by a covalent bond to the surface enabling the formation of polymer chains on previously functionalized substrates [11,12,13,14].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call