Buckling Instabilities in Polymer Brush Surfaces via Postpolymerization Modification

Published

October 30, 2017

Author(s)

Wei Guo, Cassandra M. Reese, Li Xiong, Phillip K. Logan, Brittany J. Thompson, Christopher Stafford, Anton Ievlev, Bradley S. Lokitz, Olga S. Ovchinnikova, Derek L. Patton

Abstract

We report a simple route to engineer ultrathin polymer brush surfaces with wrinkled and creased morphologies using postpolymerization modification (PPM), where the length scale of the buckled features can be tuned using PPM reaction time and sequence. We show that partial crosslinking of the outer layer of the polymer brush under poor solvent conditions is crucial to obtain wrinkled morphologies upon swelling. Sequential postmodification reactions enable wrinkle‐to‐crease and wrinkle‐to‐wrinkle morphological transitions while endowing the brush with additional chemical functionality.

Citation

Macromolecules

Volume

50

Issue

21

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

polymer brush, wrinkling, creasing, swelling, post-polymerization, modification, thin films

Citation

Guo, W. , Reese, C. , Xiong, L. , Logan, P. , Thompson, B. , Stafford, C. , Ievlev, A. , Lokitz, B. , Ovchinnikova, O. and Patton, D. (2017), Buckling Instabilities in Polymer Brush Surfaces via Postpolymerization Modification, Macromolecules, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.7b01888 (Accessed October 15, 2025)