Supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China and the 100-talent Program of HIT, the review article “Complex Polymer Brush Gradients Based on Nanolithography and Surface-initiated Polymerization”, which was written by the Prof. Qiang He’s research group from Micro/Nano Technology Research Center in the Academy of Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Science, has been published recently in Chemical Society Reviews, a well-known international journal with the SCI impact factor of 26.58 in 2011 (DOI: 10.1039/c2cs15316e). This article has the highest impact factor among the published papers by the chemical discipline in HIT at present, and is also the first paper published in the journal by HIT.

    Gradient plays an important role in vivo. The study of gradient surfaces is beneficial to not only the imitation of the cellular microenvironment for the better understanding of life processes but also the development of the platform with improved efficiency for high-throughput analysis. In recent years, Prof. Qiang He, in cooperation with Heidelberg University, has designed and fabricated the 2D patterned polymer brushes by Chemical Nanolithography. These polymer brush arrays can be used to imitate the extracellular matrixes and study the cell adhesion and sprawl (Langmuir 23 (2007) 3981). On this basis, he has also prepared complex patterned 3D polymer brush gradients using Chemical Lithography and one-pot polymerization, in which patterned 3D polymer brush gradients have been prepared controllably for the first time (Small 3 (2007) 1860). This approach has provided a new strategy for the design and fabrication of complex 3D patterned polymer brush gradients, which overcomes the shortcomings of conventional lithographies in which multiple lithography steps have to be sequentially performed.

    Chemical Society Reviews, an important academic journals published by Royal Society of Chemistry, is one of the most authoritative review journals in chemistry.

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