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Slow polymer diffusion on brush-patterned surfaces in aqueous solution

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Mark GeogheganORCiD

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Royal Society of Chemistry, 2019.

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Abstract

© The Royal Society of Chemistry.A model system for the investigation of diffusional transport in compartmentalized nanosystems is described. Arrays of “corrals” enclosed within poly[oligo(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate] (POEGMA) “walls” were fabricated using double-exposure interferometric lithography to deprotect aminosilane films protected by a nitrophenyl group. In exposed regions, removal of the nitrophenyl group enabled attachment of an initiator for the atom-transfer radical polymerization of end-grafted POEGMA (brushes). Diffusion coefficients for poly(ethylene glycol) in these corrals were obtained by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Two modes of surface diffusion were observed: one which is similar to diffusion on the unpatterned surface and a very slow mode of surface diffusion that becomes increasingly important as confinement increases. Diffusion within the POEGMA brushes does not significantly contribute to the results.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Clarkson CG, Johnson A, Leggett GJ, Geoghegan M

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Nanoscale

Year: 2019

Volume: 11

Issue: 13

Pages: 6052-6061

Online publication date: 14/03/2019

Acceptance date: 07/03/2019

Date deposited: 05/08/2021

ISSN (print): 2040-3364

ISSN (electronic): 2040-3372

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry

URL: https://doi.org/10.1039/C9NR00341J

DOI: 10.1039/C9NR00341J

PubMed id: 30869707

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