Development of functional polymer platform using reactive poly(pentafluorophenyl acrylate) as a precursor

Abstract

Reactive polymers has the advantage of being able to easily add various functional groups we want to the polymer by using the high reactivity. In addition, since the ratio or type of added functional groups can be quickly and precisely controlled, the efficiency of optimization for the desired function is very high. In this study, poly(pentafluorophenyl acrylate) (PPFPA), a reactive polymer, is used. Because PPFPA has a pentafluorophenyl (PFP) ester functional group, which is a good leaving group, SN2 substitution reaction occurs very easily with a primary amine or alcohol functional group. As a result, the PFP functional group can be substituted with the desired functional group to give a new functional group to the polymer. In chapter 3, we reacted PPFPA precursors with various ratios of amine-PEG and amine-PDMS to synthesize PPFPA-g-PEG-g-PDMS brush copolymers with different 7 ratios. The synthesized 7 brush copolymers were tested for antifouling performance against chlorella, protein, and cells, which are considered to be major contaminants in the marine and bio fields. As a result, it was confirmed that the ratio of PEG and PDMS showing the best antifouling performance was slightly different depending on the foulant. To find out more about the reason, we analyzed the structure of the brush copolymer coated surfaces through depth analysis. As the PEG chain is stretched a little higher than the PDMS chain, we proposed an antifouling mechanism in which the two polymers exhibit antifouling performance step by step. In chapter 4, biotin-(IR775-g-PEG) copolymer was synthesized from PPFPA by grafting IR775 dye and PEG. And the bio imaging ability of biotin-(IR775-g-PEG) was tested using streptavidin-coated silicon wafers and agarose beads. As a result of analysis using confocal microscopy, it was confirmed that it successfully selectively bound and exhibited about 14 times the fluorescence intensity compared to a single biotin-IR775 dye molecule. Therefore, the possibility of application in the field of bio imaging was confirmed by using this strong fluorescence characteristics.