Abstract
Surface-initiated living radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) using copper/bipyridyl complex was carried out from silicon wafer immobilized with a 2-bromoisobutylate moiety, resulting in the assembly of polymer chains tethered by one end to a surface, a so-called “polymer brush”. The thickness of the PMMA brush, which was estimated by ellipsometry and atomic force microscopy, increased linearly with the molecular weight of the chains, and was controlled by the free initiator concentration. The graft density of the PMMA brushes was estimated to be as high as 0.56 chains/nm2. The frictional properties of the high density PMMA brush were characterized by sliding the stainless ball probe on its surface across a width of 20 mm at a rate of 90 mm/min under loading of 0.49 N in air at room temperature. The PMMA brush was found to have a lower frictional coefficient and much better wear resistance than the corresponding spin-coated PMMA film because of the anchoring of the chain ends in the brush. In addition, the friction coefficient of the polymer brush significantly decreased in response to soaking in acetone and toluene, and increased in response to immersion in hexane. The tribological properties depended on the solvent quality.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
H. Ishida, T. Koga, M. Morita, H. Otsuka, and A. Takahara, Tribology Lett., 19, 523 (2005).
K. Matyjaszewski and J. Xia, Chem. Rev., 101, 2921 (2001).
C. J. Hawker, A. W. Bosman, and E. Harth, Chem. Rev., 101, 3661 (2001).
M. Kamigaito, T. Ando, and M. Sawamoto, Chem. Rev., 101, 3689 (2001).
M. Ejaz, S. Yamamoto, K. Ohno, Y. Tsujii, and T. Fukuda, Macromolecules, 31, 5934 (1998).
B. Zhao and W. J. Brittain, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 121, 3557 (1999).
M. Husseman, E. E. Malmstrom, M. McNamara, M. Mate, D. Mecerreyes, D. G. Benoit, J. L. Hedrick, P. Mansky, E. Huang, T. P. Russell, and C. J. Hawker, Macromolecules, 32, 1424 (1999).
T. von Werne and T. E. Patten, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 121, 7409 (1999).
M. Ejaz, K. Ohno, Y. Tsujii, and T. Fukuda, Macromolecules, 33, 2870 (2000).
C. Perruchot, M. A. Khan, A. Kamitsi, S. P. Armes, T. von Werne, and T. E. Patten, Langmuir, 17, 4479 (2001).
W. Huang, J. B. Kim, M. L. Bruening, and G. L. Baker, Macromolecules, 35, 1175 (2002).
M. Ejaz, S. Yamamoto, Y. Tsujii, and T. Fukuda, Macromolecules, 35, 1412 (2002).
K. Kato, M. Uchida, E.-T. Kang, Y. Uyama, and Y. Ikada, Prog. Polym. Sci., 28, 209 (2003).
J. J. Lin, J. A. Silas, H. Bermudez, V. T. Milam, F. S. Bates, and D. A. Hammer, Langmuir, 20, 5493 (2004).
X. Huang and M. J. Wirth, Anal. Chem., 69, 4577 (1997).
T. Matsuda, M. Kaneko, and S. Ge, Biomaterials, 24, 4507 (2003).
A. M. Granville and W. J. Brittain, Macromol. Rapid Commun., 25, 1298 (2004).
R. Iwata, P. Suk-In, V. P. Hoven, A. Takahara, K. Akiyoshi, and Y. Iwasaki, Biomacromolecules, 5, 2308 (2004).
J. Klein, E. Kumacheva, D. Mahalu, D. Perahia, and L. Fetters, Nature, 370, 634 (1994).
R. Tadmor, J. Janik, and J. Klein, Phys. Rev. Lett., 91, 115503 (2003).
U. Raviv, S. Giasson, N. Kamph, J.-F. Gohy, R. Jérôme, and J. Klein, Nature, 425, 163 (2003).
J. Klein, U. Raviv, S. Perkin, N. Kampf, L. Chai, and S. Giasson, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 16, S5437 (2004).
Y. Ohsedo, R. Takashina, J. P. Gong, and Y. Osada, Langmuir, 20, 6549 (2004).
S. Yamamoto, M. Ejaz, Y. Tsujii, M. Matsumoto, and T. Fukuda, Macromolecules, 33, 5602 (2000).
S. Yamamoto, M. Ejaz, Y. Tsujii, and T. Fukuda, Macromolecules, 33, 5608 (2000).
T. Grimaud and K. Matyjaszewski, Macromolecules, 30, 2216 (1997).
K. Matyjaszewski, T. E. Patten, and J. Xia, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 119, 674 (1997).
T. Koga, H. Otsuka, and A. Takahara, Chem. Lett., 31, 1196 (2002).
A. Takahara, H. Sakata, M. Morita, T. Koga, and H. Otsuka, Compos. Interfaces, 10, 489 (2003).
H. Tada and H. Nagayama, Langmuir, 10, 1472 (1994).
K. Hayashi, N. Saito, H. Sugimura, O. Takai, and N. Nagagiri, Langmuir, 18, 7469 (2002).
A. Hozumi, Y. Yokogawa, Y. Kameyama, H. Sugimura, K. Hayashi, H. Shinohara, and O. Takai, J. Vac. Sci. Technol., A, 19, 1812 (2001).
K. Tanaka, K. Kojio, R. Kimura, A. Takahara, and T. Kajiyama, Polym. J., 35, 44 (2003).
If a circle with radius a (m) is regarded as a contact area between a stainless probe and substrate under a normal load P (0.49 N), Hertz’s theory afford a following relationship using Young’s modulus of stainless and silicon wafer, EA (1.96×1011 Pa), EB (1.30×1011 Pa), and Poisson’s ratio vA (0.30), vB (0.28); 2/E = (1 − vA2)/EA + (1 − vB2)/EB a = (3/4 × 2/E×P × RA)3/2 where RA is curvature radius (5.00×10−3 m) of stainless ball.
Unpublished data. Even if the stainless probe slided on the surface of polymer brush with 20–30 nm thickness at rate of 90 and 900 mm/min, the friction coefficients were almost same within error margin.
S. Yamamoto, T. Tsujii, and T. Fukuda, Macromolecules, 35, 6077 (2002).
B. Zhao, W. J. Brittain, W. Zhou, and S. Z. G. Cheng, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 122, 2307 (2000).
S. G. Boyes, W. J. Brittain, X. Weng, and S. Z. G. Cheng, Macromolecules, 35, 4960 (2002).
A. Roters, M. Schimmel, J. Ruhe, and D. Johannsmann, Langmuir, 14, 3999 (1998).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sakata, H., Kobayashi, M., Otsuka, H. et al. Tribological Properties of Poly(methyl methacrylate) Brushes Prepared by Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization. Polym J 37, 767–775 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1295/polymj.37.767
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1295/polymj.37.767
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Durability Improvement of Concentrated Polymer Brushes by Multiscale Texturing
Tribology Letters (2021)
-
Radical crossover reactions of alkoxyamine-based dynamic covalent polymer brushes on nanoparticles and the effect on their dispersibility
Polymer Journal (2016)
-
Investigation of the mechanisms for stable superlubricity of poly(vinylphosphonic acid) (PVPA) coatings affected by lubricant
Friction (2016)
-
Effect of Water Swelling on the Tribological Properties of PMMA Spin-Cast Film and Brush in Aqueous Environment
Tribology Letters (2014)
-
Polymer-Brush Lubrication in Oil: Sliding Beyond the Stribeck Curve
Tribology Letters (2013)