Novel Amphiphilic Diblock and Triblock Liquid-Crystalline Copolymers with Well-Defined Structures Prepared by Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

✍ Scribed by Haifeng Yu; Atsushi Shishido; Tomiki Ikeda; Tomokazu Iyoda

• Book ID: 102498895
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 170 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1336
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.200500498

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Summary: Based on a hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) macroinitiator (PEOBr), a novel amphiphilic diblock copolymer PEO‐block‐poly(11‐(4‐cyanobiphenyloxy)undecyl) methacrylate) (PEO‐b‐PMA(11CB)) was prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using CuCl/1,1,4,7,10,10‐hexamethyltriethylenetriamine as a catalyst system. An azobenzene block of poly(11‐[4‐(4‐butylphenylazo)phenoxyl]undecyl methacrylate) was then introduced into the copolymer sequence by a second ATRP to synthesize the corresponding triblock copolymer PEO‐b‐PMA(11CB)‐b‐PMA(11Az). Both of the amphiphilic block copolymers had well‐defined structures and narrow molecular‐weight distributions, and exhibited a smectic liquid‐crystalline phase over a wide temperature range.

The amphiphilic triblock copolymer synthesized here.

imageThe amphiphilic triblock copolymer synthesized here.