In the present study, the two grafting techniques grafting-from - by activators regenerated by electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP) - and grafting-to - by copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) - were systematically compared, employing cellulose as a substrate. In order to obtain a meaningful comparison, it is crucial that the graft lengths of the polymers that are grafted from and to the substrates are essentially identical. Herein, this was achieved by utilizing the free polymer formed in parallel to the grafting-from reaction as the polymer for the grafting-to reaction. Four graft lengths were investigated, and the molar masses of the four free polymers (21 ≤ M(n) ≤ 100 kDa; 1.07 ≤ Đ(M) ≤ 1.26), i.e. the polymers subsequently employed in the grafting-to reaction, were shown to be in the same range as the molar masses of the polymers grafted from the surface (23 ≤ M(n) ≤ 87 kDa; 1.08 ≤ Đ(M) ≤ 1.31). The molecular weights of the chains grafted from the surface were established after cleavage from the cellulose substrates via size exclusion chromatography (SEC). High-resolution Fourier transform infrared microscopy (FT-IRM) was employed as an efficient tool to study the spatial distribution of the polymer content on the grafted substrates. In addition, the functionalized substrates were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), contact angle (CA) measurements, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). For cellulose substrates modified via the grafting-from approach, the content of polymer on the surfaces increased with increasing graft length, confirming the possibility to tailor not only the length of the polymer grafts but also the polymeric content on the surface. In comparison, for the grafting-to reaction, the grafted content could not be controlled by varying the length of the preformed polymer: the polymer content was essentially the same for the four graft lengths. Consequently, the obtained results, when employing cellulose as a substrate and under these conditions, suggest that the grafting-from approach is superior to the grafting-to technique with respect to controlling the distribution of the polymeric content on the surface.

In recent years, cellulose-based materials have attracted significant attention. To broaden the application areas for cellulose, polymers are often grafted to/from the surface to modify its properties. This study applies ARGET (activators regenerated by electron transfer) ATRP (atom transfer radical polymerization) when straightforwardly grafting methyl methacrylate (MMA), styrene (St), and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) from cellulose in the form of conventional filter paper in the presence of a sacrificial initiator. The free polymer, formed from the free initiator in parallel to the grafting, was characterized by (1)H NMR and SEC, showing that sufficient control is achieved. However, the analyses also indicated that the propagation from the surface cannot be neglected compared to the propagation of the free polymer at higher targeted molecular weights, which is an assumption often made. The grafted filter papers were evaluated with FT-IR, suggesting that the amount of polymer on the surface increased with increasing monomer conversion, which the FE-SEM micrographs of the substrates also demonstrated. Water contact angle (CA) measurements implied that covering layers of PMMA and PS were formed on the cellulose substrate, making the surface hydrophobic, in spite of low DPs. The CA of the PGMA-grafted filter papers revealed that, by utilizing either aprotic or protic solvents when washing the substrates, it was possible to either preserve or hydrolyze the epoxy groups. Independent of the solvent used, all grafted filter papers were essentially colorless after the washing procedure because of the low amount of copper required when performing ARGET ATRP. Nevertheless, surface modification of cellulose via ARGET ATRP truly facilitates the manufacturing since no thorough freeze-thaw degassing procedures are required.

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Preparation of biomedically interesting HPC-g-PEGMA comb architectures with tunable thermo-responsive behavior, and self-assembling properties.