ABSTRACT
Many technological applications of polymers, from adhesion [1] to biocompati bility [2 ], require optimization of the surface composition and properties of the material, which can be accomplished by several surface modification techniques [1-3]. The coverage of the substrate by a suitable overcoat can be obtained by purely ‘physical’ surface-modification techniques, which do not involve the formation of covalent chemical bonds between the substrate and the overcoat. Among them, the coating technology is probably the most widespread and commercially exploited [4]. Conversely, the establishement of a true chemical bond is often desired, especially when a high degree of adhesion between the substrate and the overcoat is required for a particular application. Unfortunately, most synthetic polymers do not have surface reactive groups, and chemical surface-modification techniques require necessarily an activation step to create reactive species in the surface region (surface functionalization). Due to the very stable nature of the bonds in organic polymers, these treatments involve either highly reactive reagents [1 ] or high-energy-density techniques [1,5].
