Herein we report the synthesis and characterization of molecular bottlebrushes with bimodal distribution of poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PnBA) side chain length. First, densely grafted copolymers were prepared via the 'grafting from' approach using Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP), followed by a selective deactivation of a fraction of chain ends, and a subsequent extension of the remaining active groups to form longer grafts. A capping with persistent radical, 4-butoxy-TEMPO, was proved to quickly and quantitatively remove bromine end groups, which was confirmed using a model studies with linear PnBA polymer. Three bottlebrush polymers: 100-0, 20-80 and 50-50, with 0, 20 and 50% of extended (longer) side chains respectively, were synthesized and characterized via AFM. AFM images of macromolecules 20-80 and 50-50 clearly showed a core-shell topology that was not observed for the bottlebrush 100-0, which proved a successful formation of architectures with the bimodal distribution of side chain length.

?Molecular bottlebrushes with bimodal side chain length

248th National Meeting (2014)

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