Comparison of Tethering of Linear and Four-Arm Poly(ethylene oxide)

Silicon surface modification with trialkoxysilyl‐functionalized star‐shaped polymers

“…It is believed that this work represents the first study that shows a comparison of the surface topography of Si surfaces modified with core‐functionalized star polymers and linear polymers of nearly equivalent molar mass. In the recent literature, Penn and colleagues compared the kinetics of surface attachment of amine functionalized linear and 4 arm star PEO of similar M n to epoxide‐derivatized silica 64. It was shown that terminally functionalized star PEO exhibited a higher surface attachment density than linear PEO.…”

Evidence that three-regime kinetics is inherent to formation of a polymer brush by a grafting-to approach

“…Excellent reviews are available that detail the graing-to method specically, 2 or provide an overview of the theory and preparation of polymer brushes, 3 or describe the increasingly important mixed brushes, which are brushes composed of two or more chemically different polymer chains. 4 We have been studying polymer brushes for some time, and, in previous publications, [5][6][7][8][9][10] we reported the observation of three-regime kinetics for graing of amine-functionalended polymer chains to a single type of surface, epoxidederivatized amorphous silica. We observed this characteristic three-regime prole for several different types of polymers as well as for different polymer architectures, molecular weights, and types of solvent.…”

Surface Grafting of PEO‐Based Star‐Shaped Molecules for Bioanalytical and Biomedical Applications

“…[22] An abundance of studies have shown that PEO-coated surfaces display exceptional protein resistance. [8,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] However, the reasons for this remarkable non-fouling property of PEO are still not yet fully understood. Excellent proteinrepellant surfaces have been obtained with highly ordered self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on metal (gold or silver) substrates presenting only a few repeat units of ethylene oxide at the chain end.…”

“…The general strategy to render surfaces inert toward proteins is to introduce a coating layer that prevents protein adsorption either thermodynamically, so that attractive surface interactions are overcompensated by repulsive interactions with the layer, or at least kinetically by creating a free‐energy barrier of sufficient height that cannot be overcome on relevant time scales 22. An abundance of studies have shown that PEO‐coated surfaces display exceptional protein resistance 8, 23–36. However, the reasons for this remarkable non‐fouling property of PEO are still not yet fully understood.…”

“…The high surface density and multivalency of reactive endgroups of stars offers distinct advantages in the preparation of nanostructured surfaces. Multiple bonds can provide a solid attachment of the stars to the surface,32 and a high density of reactive groups on the surface can also be beneficial, for example, for achieving a high binding capacity on surfaces presenting immunoreactive groups to antibodies 63, 64. A further advantage concerns the functionalization of stars with molecules that react with the endgroups.…”