Controlled polystyrene brushes grown on AFM tip

We report here the first successful growth of Polystyrene brushes directly from the apex of a conventional AFM tip using a Langmuir-Blodgett deposition technique associated with a controlled free radical polymerization. The efficiency of the grafting together with the possibility to form multi-layers are checked through AFM force measurements between a bare or functionalized tip and a silicon wafer in water or xylene.