Surface initiated polymerization on pulsed plasma deposited polyallylamine: a polymer substrate-independent strategy to soft surfaces with polymer brushes.

The deposition of polyallylamine (PAA) adlayers by pulsed plasma polymerization on various types of polymeric substrates has been explored as a general route to amino functionalized polymeric surfaces. These amino groups are highly suitable for anchoring an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiator via a robust amide linkage. Subsequent surface initiated ATRP (SI-ATRP) of monomethoxy oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (MeOEGMA) resulted in polyMeOEGMA brush grafted polymer surfaces. This combined strategy of pulsed plasma polymerization with SI-ATRP was demonstrated for five different polymeric substrates namely polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyimide (PI), polypropylene (PP), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Analysis of brush layers by attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) fully corroborated the success of the proposed strategy for all substrate types.