"Substitutable" polymer brushes: Reactive poly(methacrylate) brushes with exchangeable alkoxyamine units in the side chain

A reactive polymer brush containing alkoxyamine units in the side chains, when heated with an alkoxyamine-terminated fluorinated nongrafted polymer, gave a grafted copolymer brush by a radical crossover reaction of alkoxyamine units. The fluorinated grafted copolymer brush could be converted back to the parent polymer brush upon treatment with an excess of lowmolecular alkoxyamine. The reversible change in the surface properties of the brush was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and contact angle measurements.