Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Vol.21, No.16, 1130-1135, 2000
Synthesis of coil-rod-coil block copolymers with the aid of anionic polymerization
A two step synthetic procedure towards model coil-rod-coil triblock copolymers was developed. In the first step, a omega -bromo-functionalized oligophenylenes (rod part) were modified to anionic bifunctional initiators. In the second step, flexible chains were grown from both ends of the rod part by an anionic polymerization procedure leading to polystyrene-rod-polystyrene and/or poly(2-vinyl pyridine)-rod-poly(2-vinyl pyridine) triblock copolymers. Characterization of the final products by gel permeation chromatography, NMR spectroscopy light scattering. Raman spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry demonstrated that well-defined coil-rod-coilblock copolymers can be synthesized.