Improving the world one monomer at a time: in silico and on silica investigations of polymerization reactions and polymers

Summary

Surface modification is often used to change or improve surface properties. In printing industries, heavily fluorinated materials are often applied as antifouling coating to prevent polymeric fouling of printhead nozzles. Such heavily fluorinated materials are toxic and will soon be prohibited in the European Union. A less toxic alternative is thus desired. Moreover, the durability of such a coating could be improved by rendering these coatings self-healing.

In this PhD project, a range of semi- and non-fluorinated polymer brushes has been developed, of which the antifouling and self-healing properties have been investigated. The non-fluorinated coatings prove a promising alternative to their fluorinated counterparts. Furthermore, sustainable polymerization reactions such as imine exchange reactions, the SuFEx click reaction and lignin degradation, have been investigated by computational modelling.