The dynamic characteristics of hydrogen and ionic bonding contributes to the reversible properties of acrylic polymers, opening new avenues for designing materials with flexibility and processability. Incorporation of multiple hydrogen bonding or ionic bonding provides acrylic polymers with enhanced structural and mechanical integrity. Inspired by complementary hydrogen bonding interactions between nucleobase pairs in DNA, a series of bioinspired nucleobase-acrylic monomers such as adenine acrylate (AdA), thymine acrylate (ThA), cytosine acrylate (CyA), ureido-cytosine acrylate (UCyA) were designed, whose synthesis were afforded by aza-Michael addition. Additionally, a facile 2-step synthesis provided doubly-charged styrenic-DABCO Br-Cl monomers. Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization enabled the preparation of multiple nucleobase- or ion-containing acrylic triblock copolymers with varied compositions, controlled molecular weight, and low polydispersity. Thermal and mechanical analysis demonstrated superior properties attributed to the presence of efficient physical crosslinking of dynamic bonds. Moreover, the soft acrylic backbone increased chain mobility and facilitated self-assembly, promoting microphase-separated morphological behavior. The hydrogen and ionic bonding-containing polymers offer great promise for many applications as pressure sensitive adhesives and thermoplastic elastomers.

Designing acrylic ABA triblock copolymers with multiple hydrogen bonding or multiple ionic bonding

256th National Meeting (2018)

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