Surface-initiated anionic polymerization of styrene by means of self-assembled monolayers

A study was conducted to analyze a synthetic model of determining dense polymer brushes on planar surfaces. A self-assembled monolayer of biphenyllithium moieties on gold substrates was utilized to promote the anionic polymerization of styrene. The gold substrates were obtained by thermal evaporation of titanium as an adhesive layer and gold onto planar microscope glass slides. Findings indicated that the method results in densely grafted polymer brushes.