“Photoresponsive Polymer Brushes for Hydrophilic Patterning”

A.A. BROWN; O. AZZARONI; W.T.S HUCK

LANGMUIR

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Año: 2009 vol. 25 p. 1744 - 1749

0743-7463

The use of photolabile protecting groups (PGs) as a means to create latent hydrophilic surfaces is presented. Naturally hydrophobic PGs, based on o-nitrobenzyl chemistry, are used on polymer side chains, poised for cleavage upon exposure to UV light. Removal of the PGs liberates the hydrophilic polymer, thereby switching the surface wettability from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. This switch can be augmented by increasing the surface roughness. Additionally, this system is also shown to be spatially addressable, a highly desirable property for applications which require specific regions of a surface to switch their wettability.