This study was directed to the synthesis of various periodically-functionalized polymers by the transition metal-catalyzed simultaneous chain- and step-growth radical polymerization. The simultaneous polymerization was performed among N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), functional dihalides (1  ), and diallyl compounds (2  ) with CuCl/Me6TREN in DMF/H2O = 1/1 at 20 �C. The reaction smoothly proceeded along with consumption of the three monomers. The Mn of the resultant polymers increased in proportion to monomer conversion remaining narrow MWDs in the initial stage, while it progressively increased up to Mn> 20,000 with broad MWDs after the complete consumption of NIPAM. These results indicate that the simultaneous polymerization took place to give poly(NIPAM)s with periodical functional groups. The effects of the periodic functional groups were also investigated on the thermoresponsive behavior of the aqueous solution of the obtained poly(NIPAM), in which specific self-aggregation behavior forming micelles was observed for polymers with periodically-sequenced hydrophilic groups.

Periodically functionalized poly(NIPAM) by metal-catalyzed step- and chain-growth radical polymerizations

248th National Meeting (2014)

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