Polymer Brush-Based Thin Films via Cu(0)-Mediated Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization for Sensing Applications

Abstract

Nanomaterial-based hybrid devices have demonstrated potential use in environmental contaminant sensing. Polymer thin films are tunable in their physicochemical properties, which makes them exploitable as functional sensing materials. For device fabrication, covalently functionalized polymer films have been explored over physically deposited layers due to their stability and have been produced via surface-initiated polymerizations as surface-grafting polymers. Specifically, surface-initiated controlled radical polymerizations (CRPs) allow the production of homogeneous organic nanothin films with tailored thicknesses. Copper-mediated CRP (CuCRP) is a rapid and facile technique to prime surface-grafting polymer films for hybrid sensor devices with improved characteristics. In this Review, we summarized the application of surface-grafting polymer-based hybrid sensor devices with an emphasis on environmental applications, and we compiled the development of CuCRP, emphasizing the discussion over its mechanism and designation and comparing it to other CRPs for the fabrication of organic thin films in sensor devices.

Surface-Initiated Zerovalent Metal-Mediated Controlled Radical Polymerization (SI-Mt0CRP) for Brush Engineering

“…Notably, this concept has been expanded to the other metal plate systems, and various zerovalent transition metals (such as Fe, , Zn, − and Sn) have been explored to catalyze the SI-CRP (Figure ). Because of its diverse characteristics and advantages, SI-Mt 0 CRP has become a prevalent technique for preparing functional polymer brushes with great application potential in the fields of surface lubrication, − sensing platforms, , biomedical engineering, , and blue energy harvesting. , …”

“…Notably, this concept has been expanded to the other metal plate systems, and various zerovalent transition metals (such as Fe, 43,44 Zn, 45−47 and Sn 4 ) have been explored to catalyze the SI-CRP (Figure 1). Because of its diverse characteristics and advantages, SI-Mt 0 CRP has become a prevalent technique for preparing functional polymer brushes with great application potential in the fields of surface lubrication, 48−50 sensing platforms, 51,52 biomedical engineering, 4,43 and blue energy harvesting. 42,44 In this Account, we provide a focused discussion of the recent advances of SI-Mt 0 CRP and highlight its integration with some externally assisted technologies in the fabrication of polymer brushes for emerging applications.…”

Influences of nitrogen base excess on ARGET ATRP of styrene with ascorbic acid acetonide and traces of oxygen and water

“…2 Unfortunately, the latter approach contaminates the product and the methods developed for the removal of copper residues are time-consuming, expensive, 9,10 and generally non-applicable to surface-initiated ATRP. 11,12 Although several studies on metal-free ATRP are emerging, [13][14][15] more established approaches exploit the in situ reduction of Cl-Cu(II)L to Cu(I)L, allowing to use lower amounts of the cytotoxic metal. 16 Among these regenerating systems, Activators ReGenerated by Electron Transfer (ARGET) ATRP finds widespread application due to its ease of use.…”

Size Effect of the End-Attached Particle on the Adsorption-Responsive Polymer Switches

“…Polymer brushes, which are formed by grafting polymer chains on a surface, provide a convenient method for the modification of surface properties. − In particular, multicomponent brushes, composed of chemically different brushes which respond to external stimuli, such as environmental temperature, pH, and electric or magnetic fields, could be exploited for the design of smart materials with a wide range of applications in nano- and biotechnology, − for example, switch sensors, − antifouling surfaces, − targeting drug delivery, ,− and chromatographic protein separations. − Two basic quantities that determine the performance of these smart materials are the material sensitivity and response time. For practical uses, people normally pursue smart materials with high sensitivity and a short response time.…”