The possibility to impart surface properties to any polymeric substrate using a fast, reproducible, and industrially friendly procedure, without the need for surface pretreatment, is highly sought after. This is in particular true in the frame of antibacterial surfaces to hinder the threat of biofilm formation. In this study, the potential of aryl‐azide polymers for photofunctionalization and the importance of the polymer structure for an efficient grafting are demonstrated. The strategy is illustrated with a UV‐reactive hydrophilic poly(2‐oxazoline) based copolymer, which can be photografted onto any polymer substrate that contains carbon–hydrogen bonds to introduce antifouling properties. Through detailed characterization it is demonstrated that the controlled spatial distribution of the UV‐reactive aryl‐azide moieties within the poly(2‐oxazline) structure, in the form of pseudogradient copolymers, ensures higher grafting efficacy than other copolymer structures including block copolymers. Furthermore, it is found that the photografting results in a covalently bound layer, which is thermally stable and causes a significant antiadherence effect and biofilm reduction against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus epidermidis strains while remaining noncytotoxic against mouse fibroblasts.

We report measurements and theoretical predictions on the effect of an aligning magnetic field on the orientational disorder of a nematic liquid crystal in contact with isotropic solid substrates. Different types of substrates present a similar disorder and a similar dependency on the magnetic field amplitude, i.e. a decreasing of the angular distribution widths and spatial correlation lengths. Measurements are in qualitative agreement with a theory where the orientational disorder emerges from the competition between the aligning magnetic torque and the disorienting thermal fluctuations during the adsorption of the liquid crystal molecules on the substrate.

Control of film structures made from a polystyrene-polystyrene sodium sulfonate-polystyrene (PS-PNaSS-PS) copolymer micellar solution is investigated in a THF/water mixture. Four different copolymers (varying molecular weights) are synthesised via RAFT (Reversible Addition Fragmentation chain Transfer) polymerisation. Depending on parameters such as copolymer molecular weight, solvent composition and copolymer concentration, the PS-PNaSS-PS triblock self-assembles into different morphologies in solution and dry state. The effect of each parameter is investigated using characterization techniques such as AFM, TEM, Cryo-TEM, SEM and SAXS. The morphologies obtained for PS-PNaSS-PS are found to be extremely sensitive when the water content of the micellar solution is low. Among the structures observed, a highly ordered nano-porous film is obtained using a PS10k-PNaSS6k-PS10k triblock copolymer solution containing 3.0 wt% of water. This micellar solution is used to prepare a porous membrane for filtration applications. Pure water filtration data suggest a pore size in the range of ultrafiltration, making these membranes attractive for applications in the food industry, for bacteria, virus and protein removal.

We explore the glassy dynamics of soft colloids using microgels and charged particles interacting by steric and screened Coulomb interactions, respectively. In the supercooled regime, the structural relaxation time τα of both systems grows steeply with volume fraction, reminiscent of the behavior of colloidal hard spheres. Computer simulations confirm that the growth of τα on approaching the glass transition is independent of particle softness. By contrast, softness becomes relevant at very large packing fractions when the system falls out of equilibrium. In this nonequilibrium regime, τα depends surprisingly weakly on packing fraction, and time correlation functions exhibit a compressed exponential decay consistent with stress-driven relaxation. The transition to this novel regime coincides with the onset of an anomalous decrease in local order with increasing density typical of ultrasoft systems. We propose that these peculiar dynamics results from the combination of the nonequilibrium aging dynamics expected in the glassy state and the tendency of colloids interacting through soft potentials to refluidize at high packing fractions.