Towards controlled polymer brushes via a self-assembly-assisted-grafting-to approach

Precise synthesis of polymer brushes to modify the surface of nanoparticles and nanodevices for targeted applications has been one of the major focuses in the community for decades. Here we report a self-assembly-assisted-grafting-to approach to synthesize polymer brushes on flat substrates. In this method, polymers are pre-assembled into two-dimensional polymer single crystals (PSCs) with functional groups on the surface. Chemically coupling the PSCs onto solid substrates leads to the formation of polymer brushes. Exquisite control of the chain folding in PSCs allows us to obtain polymer brushes with well-defined grafting density, tethering points and brush conformation. Extremely high grafting density (2.12 chains per nm2) has been achieved in the synthesized single-tethered polymer brushes. Moreover, polymer loop brushes have been successfully obtained using oddly folded PSCs from telechelic chains. Our approach combines some of the important advantages of conventional ‘grafting-to’ and ‘grafting-from’ methods, and is promising for tailored synthesis of polymer brushes.