Staudinger-Ureation: A new and fast reaction for surface post-functionalization

• Staudinger-Ureation reaction to induce urea linkers on substrates.
• Various isocyanates tested.
• Obtaining of parahydrophobic properties (high water adhesion).
• Urea linkers change the surface morphology.

In this work, we report for the first time the use of a Staudinger reaction variation in order to induce post-functionalization on substrates. This reaction allows to form urea from azide in one-step in three h. This fast reaction is investigated for monomer synthesis and surface post-functionalization with various commercially available isocyanates. Despite the high hydrophilic feature of the formed bond, highly hydrophobic features were observed by post-functionalization with apparent contact angle (θ) higher than 125°. The modified surfaces also show high adherence with water and present parahydrophobic feature. All surfaces were investigated for their morphology roughness and wettability. Starting from polymer films with azido groups with fibrous surface structures, we also show that the post-functionalization dramatically modified the surface morphology and that the urea linkers induced aggregation of fiber structures by H-bonds. This work is very important in the control of the surface morphology and hydrophobicity by post-treatment and opens also various potential applications by introducing other functionalities.

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