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Polymers
Special Issues
Polymer Brushes: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications
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Polymer Brushes: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Physics and Theory".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2024 | Viewed by 1682

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Costas H. Vlahos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chemistry Department, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
Interests: polymers; analytical theory; computer simulations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymer brushes have emerged as a focal point in polymer research, addressing the demand for facile and versatile surface modifications. The advent of controlled radical polymerization from surfaces, coupled with advanced theoretical models, simulations, and characterization tools, has empowered researchers to precisely manipulate brush density and thickness, thereby exerting unprecedented control over surface properties and functionality. Elevated brush density induces a stretched brush conformation, impacting molecular interactions with the brush surface. The resulting residual stress imparts distinctive properties to polymer brushes compared to equivalent layers of coated polymer chains. Owing to these remarkable characteristics, interest in polymer brushes has developed due to their significance for applications in various fields, such as tribology, controlled drug/gene delivery, tissue engineering, imaging, and the design of stimuli-responsive materials.

Prof. Dr. Costas H. Vlahos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • advances in the synthesis of polymer brushes, including grafting-from, grafting-to, and grafting-onto methods
  • characterization of polymer brushes, including surface-sensitive techniques, spectroscopy, microscopy, and rheology
  • analytical theory, Monte Carlo, and molecular dynamics simulations
  • applications in materials science and biotechnology
  • effects of polymer chain architecture, neutral and charged brushes, mixed brushes, surface geometry, effects of mixed solvents, electric field, pH, salt, and shear stress

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2545 KiB  
Article
The Kinetics of Polymer Brush Growth in the Frame of the Reaction Diffusion Front Formalism
by Piotr Polanowski and Andrzej Sikorski
Polymers 2024, 16(21), 2963; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16212963 - 23 Oct 2024
Viewed by 519
Abstract
We studied the properties of a reaction front that forms in irreversible reaction–diffusion systems with concentration-dependent diffusivities during the synthesis of polymer brushes. A coarse-grained model of the polymerization process during the formation of polymer brushes was designed and investigated for this purpose. [...] Read more.
We studied the properties of a reaction front that forms in irreversible reaction–diffusion systems with concentration-dependent diffusivities during the synthesis of polymer brushes. A coarse-grained model of the polymerization process during the formation of polymer brushes was designed and investigated for this purpose. In this model, a certain amount of initiator was placed on an impenetrable surface, and the “grafted from” procedure of polymerization was carried out. The system consisted of monomer molecules and growing chains. The obtained brush consisted of linear chains embedded in nodes of a face-centered cubic lattice with excluded volume interactions only. The simulations were carried out for high rafting densities of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.6 and for reaction probabilities of 0.02, 0.002, and 0.0002. Simulations were performed by means of the Monte Carlo method while employing the Dynamic Lattice Liquid model. Some universal behavior was found, i.e., irrespective of reaction rate and grafting density, the width of the reaction front as well as the height of the front show for long times the same scaling with respect to time. During the formation of the polymer layer despite the observed difference in dispersion of chain lengths for different grafting densities and reaction rates at a given layer height, the quality of the polymer layer does not seem to depend on these parameters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Brushes: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications)
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22 pages, 4476 KiB  
Article
Impact of Copolymer Architecture on Demicellization and Cargo Release via Head-to-Tail Depolymerization of Hydrophobic Blocks or Branches
by Christos Gioldasis, Apostolos Gkamas and Costas Vlahos
Polymers 2024, 16(8), 1127; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16081127 - 17 Apr 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 720
Abstract
Utilizing molecular dynamics simulations, we explored the demicellization and cargo release dynamics of linear and miktoarm copolymers, featuring one, two, and three hydrophobic blocks or branches, each capable of head-to-tail depolymerization. Our findings revealed that, under stoichiometric trigger molecule concentrations, miktoarms with three [...] Read more.
Utilizing molecular dynamics simulations, we explored the demicellization and cargo release dynamics of linear and miktoarm copolymers, featuring one, two, and three hydrophobic blocks or branches, each capable of head-to-tail depolymerization. Our findings revealed that, under stoichiometric trigger molecule concentrations, miktoarms with three branches exhibited consistently faster depolymerization rates than those with two branches and linear copolymers. Conversely, at constant trigger molecule concentrations, the depolymerization rates of copolymers exhibited more complex behaviors influenced by two opposing factors: the excess of trigger molecules, which increased with a decrease in the number of hydrophobic branches or blocks, and simultaneous head-to-tail depolymerization, which intensified with an increasing number of branches. Our study elucidates the intricate interplay between copolymer architecture, trigger molecule concentrations, and depolymerization dynamics, providing valuable insights for the rational design of amphiphilic copolymers with tunable demicellization and cargo release properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Brushes: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications)
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