Macromolecules is the premier journal in polymers and has a comprehensive scope that gives equal merit to every aspect of polymer science. The synergy between synthesis, characterization, thermodynamics, properties, simulations and theory has strengthened the field and continually inspires. This crosscutting journal has countless examples that demonstrate how developments in one aspect of the field have motivated another. This talk highlights how advances in polymer synthesis enable advances polymer physics including the role of anionic polymerization on block copolymers, tacticity control for crystallization, and more recently sequence control in associating polymers. Acid- and ion-containing polymers have specific interactions that produce both hierarchical nanoscale morphologies containing polar aggregates and remarkable bulk properties. Untangling the correlations between the primary structure of such associating polymers and their morphologies and properties has long been a challenge in polymer physics, because most acid- and ion-containing polymers have random sequences of polar and non-polar monomeric units. New synthetic methods can increasingly produce polymers with greater molecular precision that provide greater uniformity of and control over the hierarchical structure morphologies and even yield new morphologies. Specifically, we have studied a series of precise polymers synthesized by acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) chemistry that have functional groups evenly spaced along linear polyethylenes. We have established design rules connecting these precise polymers to particular hierarchical morphologies and have discovered a variety of new morphologies including cubic and layered structures. Using in situ X-ray scattering and tensile testing, we’ve identified three distinct mechanical responses and their corresponding morphology evolutions. These precise polyethylenes have also been studied via molecular dynamics simulations (coarse grained and fully atomistic) to elucidate their morphologies and, more recently their dynamics, which were found to agree with quasielastic neutron scattering results.

How advances in polymer synthesis have enabled advances in polymer physics

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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