SmallTalks "Polymer Brushes as Functional Surface Coatings"

Abstract 

When polymers are grafted from a surface at a high surface coverage, and exposed to a liquid environment, it promotes stretching of the chains up and perpendicular to the surface, forming a highly hydrated "brush"-like structure that extends out a distance on the scale of a few hundred nanometres. These nanoscale “polymer brushes” are commonly used as surface coatings for their protein repelling (antifouling) properties, where the polymer brushes prevent proteins and other large molecules from attaching to the surface. However, polymer brushes can also add functionality to the surface by using monomers with different chemical functionality in the preparation of the polymer. In this talk, I will show you how these polymer brushes can be used to create versatile functional nanostructures and I will show some of the bioanalytical applications I have used them for.