Modification of Polymeric Materials via Surface-Initiated Controlled/”Living” Radical Polymerization

Modification of polymeric materials has been a significant issue over last two decades in many fields of application. Among modification techniques developed to date, surface grafting has emerged as a simple, useful, and versatile approach to improve surface properties of polymers for a wide variety of applications. The synthesis of tethered block copolymer brushes via the use of controlled/”living” free radical polymerization techniques presents many significant advantages over traditional free radical polymerization techniques. This review surveys recent literature on polymer surfaces with graft chains, mainly focusing on grafting methods such as surface-initiated controlled/”living” free radical polymerization via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization (NMRP), reversible addition fragmentation transfer (RAFT) polymerization and iniferter techniques.