Functional copolymer brushes composed of a hydrophobic backbone and densely grafted conjugated side chains via a combination of living polymerization with click chemistry?

Polymer Chemistry Pub Date: 2013-01-07 DOI: 10.1039/C2PY21124F

Abstract

A series of well-defined copolymer brushes, PS-g-P3HT, composed of a hydrophobic coil-like PS backbone and densely grafted rod-like P3HT side chains were successfully synthesized by a combination of the quasi-living Grignard metathesis (GRIM) method, reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT), and click reaction. The molecular weight distribution of the resulting PS-g-P3HT copolymer brushes was rather narrow (polydispersity index, PDI < 1.2). The grafting efficiency was very high (i.e., the efficiency of all click reactions >96%). The self-assembly of PS-g-P3HT at the air/water interface was explored using the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) technique. Quite intriguingly, circular domain arrays composed of the non-crystallized P3HT nanofibers were observed at high surface pressure.

Graphical abstract: Functional copolymer brushes composed of a hydrophobic backbone and densely grafted conjugated side chains via a combination of living polymerization with click chemistry
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