Premium
Polymer Dispersity Control by Organocatalyzed Living Radical Polymerization
Author(s) -
Liu Xu,
Wang ChenGang,
Goto Atsushi
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201814573
Subject(s) - dispersity , polymer , monomer , materials science , radical polymerization , polymerization , copolymer , polymer chemistry , living polymerization , reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer polymerization , polymer architecture , molar mass distribution , polymer science , chemical engineering , composite material , engineering
Molecular weight distribution of polymers, termed dispersity ( Đ ), is a fundamental parameter for determining polymer material properties. This paper reports a novel approach for controlling Đ by exploiting a temperature‐selective radical generation in organocatalyzed living radical polymerization. The polymers with tailored Đ were synthesized in a batch system without the assistance of an external pump. A unique aspect of this approach is that Đ was tuneable from 1.11 to 1.50 in any segment in diblock, triblock, and multiblock copolymers and in any form of star and brush polymer without segmental or topological restriction. This approach is amenable to various monomers and free from metals and thus attractive for applications. The approach also generated polymer brushes on surfaces with tailored Đ . An interesting finding was that the polymer brushes exhibited unique interaction with external molecules, depending on the Đ value.