Presenter:
Rohit Gupta
Abstract:
Multiblock copolymers with complex architectures o_er opportunities to
create a diversity of ordered phases due to their greatly enlarged parameter
space [1]. The studies on multiblock copolymer architectures are primarily
limited to theoretical investigations of 3-arm star and A-B-C linear triblock
copolymers [2]. A versatile synthetic strategy has been designed to
synthesize a series of graft copolymers which lie along the unexplored
continuum between 3-arm star and A-B-C linear triblock copolymers. The
synthetic methodology includes the synthesis of block copolymer using living
polymerization, followed by a single molecule insertion (SMI) which
specifically inserts only once onto the polymer chain and provides the
adequate functionality for eventual grafting the third polymer chain [3]. The
SMI is followed by chain extension and finally the third polymer chain is
grafted to the polymer backbone [4,5]. We had been investigating different
chemistries which could satisfy the criteria for SMI in different polymer
chains and will help in exploring the overall ternary phase diagram for these
continuum block copolymers. The synthesized graft copolymers have been
characterized using SAXS and TEM to study the effect of the variations in
molecular architecture on the macromolecular self-assembly. The spontaneous
self-assembly graft copolymers can be further investigated to produce highly
ordered morphologies that could be utilized in a variety of applications.