Stimuli-responsive Polymer Brushes

Abstract

Composed of a flexible backbone and densely grafted side chains, polymer brushes have become an interesting synthetic phenomenon. Perhaps one of the most attractive features of these macromolecular entities is their shape, which in some way resembles living systems, like worms. This chapter outlines fundamental aspects of polymer brushes in the context of their conformational changes, governed by side chains separated by distances much smaller than their unperturbed dimensions. Due to significant monomer congestion and entropically unfavorable extension of both the backbone and side chains can be impacted by external stimuli, such as solvent, temperature, pH and electromagnetic radiation.