Polystyrene Surfaces Terminated with a Single Functionality of Alcohol

Polymer surfaces terminated with a specific chemical functionality are attractive for biomaterial applications because of the predictability and selectivity of surface reactions towards the anchoring of a biochemical agent to the polymer. In the present work, engineering of surface functionality was performed using OH radicals generated in gas phase by the reaction between a hot filament and water molecules in vacuum. The generation of OH was confirmed by laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy. The incorporation of oxygen and formation of alcohol groups on polystyrene were confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. High resolution electron energy loss spectroscopic data also showed that for polystyrene with an uptake of less than a monolayer equivalent of oxygen, C-OH was the only detectable surface functionality containing oxygen.