Surface Grafting “Band‐Aid” for “Everyone”: Filter Paper‐Assisted Surface‐Initiated Polymerization in the Presence of Air

Abstract

We report herein a facile and generalized approach to the modification of solid surfaces with polymer brushes under ambient conditions: filter paper-assisted surface-initiated Cu 0 -mediated controlled radical polymerization (PSI-CuCRP). The polymerization solution wetted filter paper is sandwiched between a copper plate and an initiator-modified substrate, which allows the creation of a surface-initiated polymerization (SIP) "band-aid" so that everyone can perform the surface grafting selectively with good control over the quality of the polymer brushes employing low concentration and microliter amounts of the monomer solution. The versatility of this method is demonstrated by grafting different homo-, block-, and multicomponent polymer brushes by using the same activation system and reaction conditions, the polymerization process can be precisely controlled to yield uniform polymers and show high chain-end functionality which is exemplified by in situ tetra-copolymerization. The combination of photolithography and paper cutting enables to prepare arbitrary three-dimensional patterned polymer brushes on the surface.

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

“…To conduct the surface modification on a solid substrate, the substrate usually needs to be completely immersed in the monomer solution to achieve homogeneous polymer growth, and the polymerization solution requires careful degassing prior to polymerization, which makes the SIP methods not ideal for modifying large and irregularly shaped substrates in practical applications. Sandwiching the polymerization solution wetted filter paper between a copper plate and an initiator-modified substrate allowed the creation of a surface-initiated polymerization (SIP) “band-aid” (PSI-Cu 0 CRP) so that surface-attached polymers could be prepared on a substrate of irregular shape selectively yet using microliter amounts of polymerization solution (Figure a) . The wetting property of the glass vial surface changed (Figure b) after grafting with different polymer brushes and exhibited very good fidelity under high humidity and low temperature for antifogging and anti-icing …”

“…Sandwiching the polymerization solution wetted filter paper between a copper plate and an initiator-modified substrate allowed the creation of a surface-initiated polymerization (SIP) “band-aid” (PSI-Cu 0 CRP) so that surface-attached polymers could be prepared on a substrate of irregular shape selectively yet using microliter amounts of polymerization solution (Figure a) . The wetting property of the glass vial surface changed (Figure b) after grafting with different polymer brushes and exhibited very good fidelity under high humidity and low temperature for antifogging and anti-icing …”

“…(b) Photographs of a glass bottle, glass slide, and mirror before and after grafting polymer brushes via SIP “band-aid” for antifogging and anti-icing. Adapted with permission from ref . Copyright 2021 Wiley-VCH.…”

“…2 When utilizing an additional sandwiched poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) mask with channels or wetted filter paper, it also permitted the fabrication of diverse arrayed (Figure 8c) 35 or binary (Figure 8d) polymer brushes in one reaction step. 3 Furthermore, because of the surface-confined process of SI-Mt 0 CRP, the chain-transfer and termination reactions can be largely suppressed, which features a high retention of polymer…”

“…Chem., Int. Ed.20211331373313737 WuD.YinX.ZhaoY.WangY.LiD.YangF.WangL.ChenY.WangJ.YangH.LuG.LiuX.LiuF.ZhangT. Wu, D. Yin, X. Zhao, Y. Wang, Y. Li, D. Yang, F. Wang, L. Chen, Y. Wang, J. Yang, H. Lu, G. Liu, X. Liu, F. Zhang, T. 10.1021/acsmacrolett.2c005562023127176 …”