Photo-selective chain end transformation of polyacrylate-iodide using cysteamine and its application to facile single-step preparation of patterned polymer brushes

• Main Authors: Chen, Chen, Wang, Chen-Gang, Xiao, Longqiang, Goto, Atsushi
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Chemical engineering; Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization; Living Polymerization
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144008
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Cysteamine, which is an inexpensive and non-toxic aminothiol, was successfully employed as a photo-selective chain end transformation agent of iodo-terminated polymer chains (polymer-I). Polymer-I was selectively transformed to hydrogen-terminated (polymer-H) and thiol-terminated (polymer-SH) polymers with and without UV irradiation, respectively. This method is applicable to acrylate polymers. This photo-selective reaction offered a single-step preparation of patterned polymer brushes with SH and H chain end functionalities as a unique application.