SYNTHESIS OF NON-POLAR/HYDROGEN BONDING BLOCK COPOLYMERS
Open Access
- Author:
- Montgomery, Steven James
- Graduate Program:
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 12, 2003
- Committee Members:
- Michael M Coleman, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Paul C Painter, Committee Member
Ian Roland Harrison, Committee Member
Semih Eser, Committee Member - Keywords:
- polymer synthesis
block copolymers
atom transfer radical polymerization
ATRP
anionic polymerization
living polymerization - Abstract:
- Methods for the synthesis of novel block copolymers consisting of a non-polar segment and a hydrogen bonding segment were developed using a combination of living polymerization techniques. A series of well defined block copolymers was synthesized consisting of polybutadiene-block-poly(t-butyldimethylsilyloxystyrene), polybutadiene-block-poly(p-acetoxystyrene) and polybutadiene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate). The block copolymers containing t-butyldimethylsilyloxystyrene and p-acetoxystyrene may be deprotected to yield polybutadiene-block-poly(4-hydroxystyrene). Specifically, non-polar/hydrogen bonding (NP/HB) block copolymers were synthesized via two routes. The first consisted of anionic polymerization. The second involved a mechanistic transformation technique comprised of anionic and atom transfer radical polymerization techniques. The mechanistic transformation route was determined to be the superior method with regard to the molecular weight of the polymers produced, the abundance of compatible monomers, and the facile nature of the reaction technique.