In situ monitoring of SI-ATRP throughout multiple reinitiations under flow by means of a quartz crystal microbalance

Mandal, Joydeb and Varunprasaath, R S and Yan, Wenqing and Divandari, Mohammad and Spencer, Nicholas D and Dubner, Matthias (2018) In situ monitoring of SI-ATRP throughout multiple reinitiations under flow by means of a quartz crystal microbalance. In: RSC ADVANCES, 8 (36). pp. 20048-20055.

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Abstract

An investigation of the polymerisation of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) by means of surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerisation (SI-ATRP) has been carried out in situ using a quartz crystal microbalance, with multiple reinitiations under continuous flow of the reaction mixture. The SI-ATRP kinetics of HEMA were studied continuously by means of changes in the frequency, varying conditions including temperature and solvent composition, as well as monomer and catalyst concentrations, showing the influence of key reaction parameters on SI-ATRP kinetics. Such experiments enabled the design of a polymerisation protocol that leads to a reasonably fast but well-controlled growth of poly(HEMA) brushes. Furthermore, only a minor change in growth rate was observed when the polymerisation was stopped and reinitiated multiple times (essential for block synthesis), demonstrating the living nature of the SI-ATRP reaction under such conditions. The clean switching of reaction mixtures in the flow-based QCM has been shown to be a powerful tool for real-time in situ studies of surface-initiated polymerisation reactions, and a promising approach for the precise fabrication of block-containing brush structures.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	RSC ADVANCES
Publisher:	ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY, THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND
Additional Information:	Copy right of this article belong to ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY, THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Inorganic & Physical Chemistry
Date Deposited:	28 Jun 2018 14:32
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2018 14:45
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/60102

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