Properties in SPs at Interfaces

Polymer bridging has important consequences in the material and life sciences, including an influence on adhesion, tribology and polymer flow, micrombule formation and function, and cell surface interactions (de Gennes 1979 Fleer et al. 1993). Bridges occur when a polymer chain is either physisorbed or covalently bound to 

order of magnitude changes in properties might result from the fairly modest steric energetics. 

The first experimental investigations of SP bridging have also been reported only recently. One series of studies makes use of the DNA-based SPs described in Section 3.2 (Fogleman et al. 2002 Xu et al. 2004). The DNA-based SP monomers comprise 

Using the modularity of the DNA-based SPs, several structure-activity relationships have been probed. For example, it was determined that the strength of the 

In the case of dense, surface-grafted polymer brush thin hlms, cross-links are introduced by the simple addition of solutions containing bis(Pd -pincer) compounds 4a or 4b to grafted PVP brushes (Loveless et al. 2006). Because the association constants for pyridine coordination are similar, the uptake of 4a and 4b from equimolar solutions into the PVP brushes (at constant grafting density and molecular weight) is effectively equivalent, producing samples with comparable structure (number and placement of cross-links). 

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