Smart RAFT-Polymer Surfaces: Exploring their Self-assembly and Dynamics on the Nanoscale

Abstract

Synthetic polymers on surfaces are excellent models to mimic biological systems which are highly sophisticated in their responsive behaviour to environmental changes. To expand the application possibilities of smart polymer surfaces as modern devices like sensors, microfluidic channels or even next-generation computer chips, the development of new surface analyzing techniques is required. In the context of this thesis, tethered polymers were synthesized and comprehensively analyzed using metal induced energy transfer (MIET) to establish this technique in polymeric surface science. With the gained insight of surface-tethered polymers, the generation of nanostructures mediated by constrained dewetting of homopolymers was investigated.