title: Vapor-based polymer gradients.
abstract: Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) co-polymerization was used to fabricate polymer coatings, which comprise of reactive surface composition gradients. Two functionalized derivatives of [2.2]paracyclophane were fed into a two-source CVD system at a 180 ° angle, then copolymerized and deposited as a polymer gradient. Infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the compositional changes within the bulk polymer and at the surface. By manipulating process parameters, gradients of tailored compositional slope can be deposited on a wide range of substrates. We also were able to selectively immobilize fluorescence-labeled ligands onto the reactive polymer gradients, making CVD-based gradient surfaces a flexible platform for fabricating biomolecular substrates.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Chemical Engineering, Material Science and Engineering, and Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, 2300 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Yaseen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Elkasabi
authors.forename: Joerg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lahann