Kontrolle des Benetzungsverhaltens von Polymeren auf oberflächenverankerten Polymermonolagen

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jürgen Rühe
• Subject Area: Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 1998 to 2003
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5107960

In the project described in the submitted proposal we want to study the wetting properties of polymers in contact with substrates with tailor-made surface coatings. Chemical composition and structure of the substrates will be controlled through polymer monolayers covalently attached to the surfaces of substrates. The surface-attached polymer layers will be generated either by using self-assembled monolayers of initiators and growth of the polymer chains at the surface in situ ("grafting from") or through photochemical "docking" procedures, in which preformed polymers are covalently linked to the substrate ("grafting to"). A from a structural point of view similar system, which will be studied, is based on the attachment of polymers through chemical reactions at several, randomly distributed points along the backbone, which will lead to chain conformations with several anchor-points along the chain. Depending on the graft density and the strength and nature of interactions with the substrate surface "pancake" coil or "brush"-like conformations of the surface-attached polymer chains can be obtained. In addition to the monolayers ultrathin, surface-attached networks will be studied. The conformation of the chains is expected to have a very strong influence onto the wetting properties of the system.For all systems it will be studied, how the chain topology of the surface-attached chains influences the wetting properties of the system. Through systematic variation of the layer composition and the molecular weight of the polymer molecules as well as the anchor density of the tethered chains we want to develop protocols, which allow to control the wetting behavior of solid substrates with high precision.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1052: Benetzung und Strukturbildung an Grenzflächen