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Preparation and Friction Force Microscopy Measurements of Immiscible, Opposing Polymer Brushes
Published on: December 24, 2014
Architecture of polymer particles composed of brush structure at surfaces and construction of colloidal crystals
Dong Hoon Lee1, Yoko Tokuno, Satoshi Uchida
1Department of Organic Materials and Macromolecules, International Research Center of Macromolecular Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-H-133, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
Abstract:
The synthesis of polymer particles is reported, which are composed of (1) a spherical colloidal core particle, (2) encapsulation of such seed particles with the inimer 4-vinylbenzyl N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate (VBDC) providing the formation of a hyperbranched structure by a living radical mechanism, and followed by (3) a grafted polymer brush prepared by photo-induced atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The particle sizes (number-average particle diameter Dn=190-300 nm) were controlled by varying the temperature and size distributions were extremely narrow (Dw/Dn=ca. 1.0001). By variation of the particle size, the brilliant color could be varied throughout the visible spectrum. The morphology of the core-shell particles and the properties of corresponding film were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), reflection spectrum measurements, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
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