Brushes, Graft Copolymers, or Bottlebrushes? The Effect of Polymer Architecture on the Nanotribological Properties of Grafted-from Assemblies

Surface-grafted polyzwitterions (PZW) have gained a foothold in the design of synthetic materials that closely mimic the lubricious properties of articular joints in mammals. Besides their chemical composition, the architecture of PZW brushes strongly determines their morphological, nanomechanical,...

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Veröffentlicht in:Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids. - 1992. - 35(2019), 35 vom: 03. Sept., Seite 11255-11264
1. Verfasser: Yan, Wenqing (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Ramakrishna, Shivaprakash N, Spencer, Nicholas D, Benetti, Edmondo M
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2019
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Schlagworte:Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Surface-grafted polyzwitterions (PZW) have gained a foothold in the design of synthetic materials that closely mimic the lubricious properties of articular joints in mammals. Besides their chemical composition, the architecture of PZW brushes strongly determines their morphological, nanomechanical, and nanotribological characteristics. This emerges while comparing the properties of linear poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (PMPC) brushes with those displayed by graft copolymer and bottlebrush brushes, either featuring a low or a high content of PMPC side chains. Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) enabled the synthesis of different branched-brush architectures from multifunctional macroinitiators via multiple grafting steps, and allowed us to modulate their structure by tuning the polymerization conditions. At relatively low grafting densities (σ), long PMPC side segments extend at the interface of bottlebrush and graft copolymer brushes, providing both morphology and lubrication properties comparable to those shown by loosely grafted, linear PMPC brushes. When σ > 0.1 chains nm-2 the effect of the branched-brush architecture on the nanotribological properties of the films became evident. Linear PMPC brushes showed the lowest friction among the studied brush structures, with a coefficient of friction (μ) that reached 1 × 10-4, as measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Bottlebrush brushes showed comparatively higher friction, although the high content of hydrophilic PMPC side chains along their backbone substantially improved lubrication compared to that displayed by the more sparsely substituted graft copolymer brushes
Beschreibung:Date Completed 30.06.2020
Date Revised 30.06.2020
published: Print-Electronic
Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE
ISSN:1520-5827
DOI:10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b01265