KES13-1688
C-H Insertion Crosslinking – New Pathways for Tailormade (Surface-Attached) Polymer Networks
Topic
S13. Korea-Germany Polymer Symposium 2026: “Pioneering the Future of Polymeric Materials and Bridging Innovation in Sustainable Technologies”
When and Where
Sep 29, 2026
11:30 - 11:55
Room 203
Session Chairs
Tae-Dong KIM
Eunkyoung Kim
Presenter(s)
Jürgen RÜHE (University of Freiburg)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
All interactions of materials with their respective environments are controlled by the topography and chemical composition of their surfaces. Examples are the adhesion between two objects, wetting of surfaces by contacting liquids and the adsorption of molecules from the surrounding medium. Accordingly, it is important to develop chemical tools, which allow the attachment of tailor-made polymer molecules to surfaces of different chemical composition and topology.
In our presentation, a simple, new strategy will be presented which allows generating micropatterned polymer coatings with tailor-made properties with high spatial resolution. Our strategy is based on C,H insertion reactions (C,H insertion crosslinking, CHic). To this a prepolymer containing dormant groups is deposited on the material to be coated by standard techniques of coating application. Upon exposure to heat or light the dormant groups become activated and generate permanent links between the polymer chains and to the surface.
As the crosslinking is performed in the solid state the resulting surface-attached polymer networks become anisotropic when they are exposed to solvents. This prevents for entropic reasons the penetration of such layers by macromolecules. This ‘entropic shielding’ paves the way to surfaces with very unusual properties, for example extremely low friction or protein- and cell repellent surface. We discuss the fundamentals of the process and demonstrate that this strategy can be used for a broad spectrum of different applications. It is used to reduce the friction of surfaces mimicking human joints by more than 99,5% or use such systems for self-shading buildings in architecture. Additionally, we demonstrate that such surfaces can be used in various biomedical applications. We can isolate 1 single circulating tumor cell from a background of 30 billion other cells within come 40 seconds or demonstrate the generation of a gym for single biological cells to study mechanotransduction.
In our presentation, a simple, new strategy will be presented which allows generating micropatterned polymer coatings with tailor-made properties with high spatial resolution. Our strategy is based on C,H insertion reactions (C,H insertion crosslinking, CHic). To this a prepolymer containing dormant groups is deposited on the material to be coated by standard techniques of coating application. Upon exposure to heat or light the dormant groups become activated and generate permanent links between the polymer chains and to the surface.
As the crosslinking is performed in the solid state the resulting surface-attached polymer networks become anisotropic when they are exposed to solvents. This prevents for entropic reasons the penetration of such layers by macromolecules. This ‘entropic shielding’ paves the way to surfaces with very unusual properties, for example extremely low friction or protein- and cell repellent surface. We discuss the fundamentals of the process and demonstrate that this strategy can be used for a broad spectrum of different applications. It is used to reduce the friction of surfaces mimicking human joints by more than 99,5% or use such systems for self-shading buildings in architecture. Additionally, we demonstrate that such surfaces can be used in various biomedical applications. We can isolate 1 single circulating tumor cell from a background of 30 billion other cells within come 40 seconds or demonstrate the generation of a gym for single biological cells to study mechanotransduction.
