Polymer brush resist for responsive wettability

Abstract

Well-defined polymer films which change their wettability in response to external stimuli are extensively used within the microelectronics industry, and are rapidly becoming equally beneficial in the field of microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip technologies. The fabrication of a self-contained polymer brush resist, by using the chemistry of surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) and photoacid generators (PAGs), and its subsequent responsive wettability will be the subject of this paper. Since UV light is used to trigger the responsive behaviour, spatially addressable patterning could be achieved, without the use of sacrificial layers, allowing for the formation of single films with regions of different wettabilities.