Mild and Selective C–H Activation of COC Microfluidic Channels Allowing Covalent Multifunctional Coatings

[Image: see text] Plastics, such as cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), are becoming an increasingly popular material for microfluidics. COC is used, in part, because of its (bio)-chemical resistance. However, its inertness and hydrophobicity can be a major downside for many bioapplications. In this paper, we show the first example of a surface-bound selective C–H activation of COC into alcohol C–OH moieties under mild aqueous conditions at room temperature. The nucleophilic COC–OH surface allows for subsequent covalent attachments, such as of a H-terminated silane. The resulting hybrid material (COC–Si-H) was then modified via a photolithographic hydrosilylation in the presence of ω-functionalized 1-alkenes to form a new highly stable, solvent-resistant hybrid surface.