Topic details
| Topic | Critical comparison between the physico-chemical properties of acrylate, acrylamide, methacrylate and methacrylamide polymer brushes |
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| Supervisor | Ognen Pop-Georgievski, Ph.D. |
| Consultant | Ing. Andres de los Santos Pereira, Ph.D. |
| Department | Chemistry and Physics of Surfaces and Biointerfaces |
| Description | Surface initiated controlled radical polymerizations (SI-CRP) have been extensively used for the preparation of acrylate, acrylamide, methacrylate and methacrylamide polymer brushes capable to suppress the fouling from various biological media. The non-fouling character of these surface confined architectures has been often affected by the hydrophilic nature of used monomers, polymer chain length, molecular weight, layer thickness, packing density, interfacial structure, chain conformation, grafting density, etc. However, extensive critical and direct comparison of the physico-chemical properties of the polymer brushes of these two polymer families has not been performed. The main objective of this project is to synthesize parallel libraries of acrylate, acrylamide, methacrylate and methacrylamide polymer brushes which would have the same composition of side chains and same surface related parameters. At the same time within the project we will probe and compare the physico-chemical characteristics of brushes and unravel the origins of different modes of action when non-fouling or bio-activities are in question. The successful candidate will not only acquire proficiency in organic synthesis, polymer chemistry and surface modification, but will also be trained in various analytical techniques such as size spectroscopic ellipsometry, infrared reflection-adsorption, X-ray photoelectron and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopies, quartz crystal microbalance, AFM, contact angle goniometry, etc. |
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