Controlling Tack with Bicomponent Polymer Brushes

Taking advantage of the surface modification that a selective solvent can induce in a glassy polystyrene–poly(2-vinylpyridine) binary brush layer, a methodology is demonstrated for reversibly tuning the tackiness of a hydrophilic, pressure-sensitive adhesive against that surface. The significant and fully reversible alteration in adhesion has been observed even for brushes with fairly low poly(2-vinylpyridine) content (see figure).