A totally new approach in the synthesis of mixed polymer brushes tethered on polyamide (PA) surfaces is presented herein. As a proof of concept, two types of homopolymers were synthesized in sequential surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) reactions: poly(methyl methacrylate)/poly((2-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) and polystyrene /poly((2-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate). The ATRP initiator was immobilized on the surface through PA chain-end groups in two subsequent steps, separated by homo-polymerizations. The amount of the PA chains' end groups available on the modified surface was tuned by the thermal rearrangement of the surface.
Keywords: mixed polymer brushes; surface modification; surface thermal rearrangement.