Thermoresponsive Polymer Brushes via Grafting-To Procedures

Summary

Control over interactions between biological media and a device’s surface is essential for development of biomedical applications. Such control can be achieved by modification of a surface using polymer brush coatings. Introduction of thermoresponsive properties to these polymer brush coatings enables steering of the interactions with the surroundings by application of temperature changes. In this thesis, we describe multiple aspects of polymer brush research, including the synthesis and characterization of novel thermoresponsive polymer brushes, thorough investigation of thermoresponsive properties of these polymer brush coatings and the development of a substrate-independent, modular grafting-to procedure.