Figure 1 |.

Synthesis of POEGMA bottlebrushes with variable side-chain lengths by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) from planar glass substrates. a, Stepwise illustration of POEGMA growth strategy. Glass surfaces are first functionalized (“activated”) with a brominated ATRP initiator (see Methods). POEGMA bottlebrushes are then “grafted from” surfaces by SI-ATRP of PEG-methacrylate monomers. b, Characteristics of PEG-methacrylate monomers, which were all methoxy-terminated except for the EG6 moiety, which was hydroxy-terminated. (MW = molecular weight, EG# = number of ethylene glycol units, Δ = polymer overlayer thickness in nm). c, d, Water contact angle measurement of bottlebrush coatings. Experimental water droplet profiles (c) and measured sessile contact angles (d) for each surface. Results are plotted as mean ± 95% confidence interval (CI) (n ≥ 3 per group). Bars marked with a different letter indicates significant differences by multiple comparison testing in one-way ANOVA (Tukey post hoc test, p ≤ 0.05).