Island brushes to control adhesion of water in oil droplets on planar surfaces

Abstract

By using molecular self-assembly and polymer brush chemistry, adhesion of water droplets at solid/oil interfaces could be achieved and modulated by external triggers. Silicon wafers were hydrophobically modified with binary mixed self-assembled layers consisting of fluorinated silanes and atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP) initiator silanes, and subsequently grafted with responsive polymersvia surface-initiated ATRP. Temperature- and pH-responsive adhesion of water in oil droplets occurred on surfaces coated with phase-separated self-assembled layers and grafted with short polymer chains.