Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) was used to prepare polymer brushes grafted onto silica nanoparticles. Novel RAFT-silane agents were prepared that contained both an active RAFT moiety and a silane coupling agent. RAFT agents were anchored to silica nanoparticles by the functionalization of colloidal silica with the RAFT-silane agents. RAFT polymerizations ...

Antibacterial polysiloxane polymers with pending tert-butylamine groups are a novel class of compounds that are compatible with silicone elastomers, but their mechanism of action is not well understood. The research into their action mechanism was conducted on a polysiloxane copolymer grafted with tert-butylaminoethyl methacrylate and covalently attached fluorescein. Fluorometric measurements r...

We present methodologies for fabricating block copolymer assemblies grafted onto flat solid substrates, where each block of the copolymer possesses a systematic and gradual variation of molecular weight as a function of the position on the substrate. We demonstrate the utility of this technique on two case studies. In the first project, we generate surface-tethered poly[(2-hydroxyethyl methacry...

A resin-modified glass-ionomer cement (RMGIC) was studied from a computational point of view. We suggest terpolymer formation by reaction of fixation through a combination of acrylic acid (AA), itaconic acid (IA) and an aminoacid derivative (AAD) in different positions. We found that AAD-AA-IA is thermodynamically more stable, but AA-IA-AAD is the combination which can react with glycidyl metha...

Polyamidoxime chelating resin was obtained from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) grafted starch. The nitrile groups of the starch-grafted polyacrylonitrile (St-g-PAN) were converted into amidoximes by reaction with hydroxylamine under basic conditions. The synthesized graft copolymer and polyamidoxime were characterized by FTIR, TGA and elemental microanalysis. Metal chelation of the polyamidoxime resin...

The post-functionalization of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) via various synthetic routes is reported. Well-defined and monofunctionalized ω-thiol-terminated P3HT, ω-carboxylic acid-terminated P3HT, ω-acrylate-terminated P3HT, and ω-methacrylate-terminated P3HT are obtained in high yields through a straightforward procedure. From those, different novel P3HT-based graft copolymers are synthesized...