Polystyrene-block-poly(2-cinnamoylethyl methacrylate) Brushes

Abstract

Polystyrene-block-poly(2-cinnamoylethyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PCEMA) micelles, formed in THF/cyclopentane (CP) at high CP contents with PCEMA as the core and PS as the shell, were adsorbed by silica. If the volume fraction of CP, ƒCP, was between 0.67 and 0.90, the adsorbed micelles disintegrated on silica to form polymer brushes in which the PCEMA block spread on the silica surface like a melt and the PS chains stretched into the solution phase like bristles of a brush. This layered structure of PS-b-PCEMA brushes was verified by transmission electron microscopy and surface-enhanced Raman scattering studies. The brush surface coverage of different diblock copolymers was found to follow scaling relations predicted by Marques et al.