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Well‐Defined Miktocycle Eight‐Shaped Copolymers Composed of Polystyrene and Poly(ε‐caprolactone): Synthesis and Characterization
Author(s) -
Shi GangYin,
Sun JiaoTong,
Pan CaiYuan
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201100001
Subject(s) - copolymer , polymer chemistry , polystyrene , atom transfer radical polymerization , gel permeation chromatography , polymerization , caprolactone , materials science , end group , polymer , ring opening polymerization , click chemistry , chemistry , composite material
Abstract A series of well‐defined miktocycle number‐eight‐shaped copolymers composed of cyclic polystyrene (PS) and cyclic poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) have been successfully synthesized by a combination of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), ring‐opening polymerization (ROP), and “click” reaction. The synthesis involves three steps: 1) preparation of tetrafunctional initiator with two acetylene groups, one hydroxyl group and a bromo group; 2) preparation of two azide‐terminated block copolymers, N 3 ‐PCL‐(CHC) 2 ‐PS‐N 3 , with two acetylene groups anchored at the junction; and 3) intramolecular cyclization of the block copolymer through “click” reaction under high dilution. The 1 H NMR, FT‐IR, and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) techniques are applied to characterize the chemical structures of the resulting intermediates and the target polymers. Their thermal behavior is investigated by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The decrease in chain mobility of eight‐shaped copolymers restricts the crystallization of PCL.