title: Electroassisted Functionalization of Nitinol Surface, a Powerful Strategy for Polymer Coating through Controlled Radical Surface Initiation.
abstract: Coating Nitinol (NiTi) surfaces with a polymer layer has become very appealing in the past few years owing to its increased attraction in the biomedical field. Although its intrinsic properties helped ensure its popularity, its extensive implementation is still hampered by its nickel inclusion, making it sensitive to pitting corrosion and therefore leading to the release of carcinogenic Ni2+ions. Among all recent ways to modify NiTi surfaces, elaboration of self-assembled monolayers is of great interest as their high order confers a reinforcement of the metal surface corrosion resistance and brings new functionalities to the metal for postmodification processes. In this work, we compare the electroassisted and thermally assisted self-assembling of 11-(2-bromoisobutyrate)-undecyl-1-phosphonic acid (BUPA) to the classical immersion process on NiTi surfaces initially submitted to a hydrothermal treatment. Among all tested conditions, the electroassisted grafting of BUPA at room temperature appears to be the most promising alternative, as it allows grafting in very short times (5-10 min), thus preventing its degradation. The thus-formed layer has been proven to be sufficient to enable the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Chemistry and Electrochemistry of Surfaces (CES), University of Namur , rue de Bruxelles, 61, B-5000 Namur, Belgium.|Laboratory of Polymeric and Composite Materials (LPCM), Center of Innovation and Research in Materials & Polymers (CIRMAP), Health and Materials Research Institutes, University of Mons , Place du Parc, 23, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bastien
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Arrotin
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Chemistry and Electrochemistry of Surfaces (CES), University of Namur , rue de Bruxelles, 61, B-5000 Namur, Belgium.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Delhalle
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Polymeric and Composite Materials (LPCM), Center of Innovation and Research in Materials & Polymers (CIRMAP), Health and Materials Research Institutes, University of Mons , Place du Parc, 23, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.|Materials Research and Technology Department (MRT), Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) , Rue du Brill, 41, 4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dubois
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Polymeric and Composite Materials (LPCM), Center of Innovation and Research in Materials & Polymers (CIRMAP), Health and Materials Research Institutes, University of Mons , Place du Parc, 23, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mespouille
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Chemistry and Electrochemistry of Surfaces (CES), University of Namur , rue de Bruxelles, 61, B-5000 Namur, Belgium.
authors.forename: Zineb
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7652-7691
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mekhalif