Fabrication of nanostructures using polymer brushes

Abstract

Polymer brushes offer a surface platform consisting of densely packed macromolecular monolayers that can be used to generate and control nanostructures at surfaces based on the cooperative movement of interacting, stretched polymer chains in response to changes in the surrounding microenvironment. Depending on the chemical composition of the polymer and applied stimuli such as solvation or temperature, interfacial properties of polymer brushes can induce surface topographies that have been used to switch adhesion, morphology, wettability, and surface free energy. This review highlights recent advances in polymer brush fabrication using surface initiated polymerization techniques, with a particular emphasis on the advantages of using brushes to template surface properties at the nanoscale.