title: Immobilization of semisoft colloidal crystals formed by polymer-brush-afforded hybrid particles.
abstract: An immobilization technique for semisoft colloidal crystals, which are ordered arrays of polymer-brush-afforded hybrid particles synthesized by surface-initiated living radical polymerization (SI-LRP), is reported. Silica particles were first grafted with well-defined block copolymers of poly(methyl methacrylate-co-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate), P(MMA-co-HEMA)-b-PMMA by SI-LRP, which gave a graft density as high as 0.7 chains/nm(2). The HEMA units reacted with 2-isocyanatoethyl methacrylate to introduce vinyl groups at the outer layer of the polymer-brush shell. The modified hybrid particles formed a colloidal crystal in a solution containing a small amount of free polymers with vinyl groups. The colloidal crystal was photoirradiated in the presence of a photoradical initiator to immobilize it through a cross-linking reaction among the vinyl groups. The structural analyses of the colloidal crystals before and after the photoirradiation were carried out by confocal laser scanning microscopy; the results showed that the periodic structures of the crystals were maintained after immobilization.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University , Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011 Japan.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morinaga
authors.forename: Yugo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tai
authors.forename: Yoshinobu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsujii
authors.forename: Kohji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohno