Planar Molecular and Macromolecular Gradients: Preparation and Properties

We present a method for fabricating polymer brushes with a gradual variation of grafting density on solid substrates. The technique for generating such structures consists of: i) deposition of a molecular gradient of polymerization initiator on the solid substrate, and ii) polymerization from the substrate bound initiator centers (“grafting from”). In this publication we describe the preparation of gradient polymer brushes of poly(acryl amide) on silica-covered substrates. We show that the polymer density within the gradient polymer brush can be varied by controlling the polymerization time.