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Abstract A versatile synthetic platform is reported that affords high molecular weight graft copolymers containing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) backbones and vinyl‐based polymer side chains with excellent control over molecular weight and grafting density. The synthetic approach leverages thiol‐ene click chemistry to attach an atom‐transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiator to a variety of commercially available poly(dimethylsiloxane‐co‐methylvinylsiloxane) backbones (PDMS‐co‐PVMS), followed by controlled radical polymerization with a wide scope of vinyl monomers. Selective degradation of the siloxane backbone with tetrabutylammonium fluoride confirmed the controlled nature of side‐chain growth via ATRP, yielding targeted side‐chain lengths for copolymers containing up to 50% grafting density and overall molecular weights in excess of 1 MDa. In addition, by using a mixture of thiols, grafting density and functionality can be further controlled by tuning initiator loading along the backbone. For example, solid‐state fluorescence of the graft copolymers was achieved by incorporating a thiol‐containing fluorophore along the siloxane backbone during the thiol‐ene click reaction. This simple synthetic platform provides facile control over the properties of a wide variety of grafted copolymers containing flexible PDMS backbones and vinyl polymer side chains.
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Photoinduced SET to access olefin-acrylate copolymers
The advantageous material properties that arise from combining non-polar olefin monomers with activated vinyl monomers have led to considerable progress in the development of viable copolymerization strategies. However, unfavorable reactivity ratios during radical copolymerization of the two result in low levels of olefin incorporation, and an abundance of deleterious side reactions arise when attempting to incorporate many polar vinyl monomers via the coordination–insertion pathway typically applied to olefins. We reasoned that design of an activated monomer that is not only well-suited for radical copolymerization with polar vinyl monomers ( e.g. , acrylates) but is also capable of undergoing post-polymerization modification to unveil an olefin repeat unit would allow for the preparation of statistical olefin-acrylate copolymers. Herein, we report monomers fitting these criteria and introduce a post-polymerization modification strategy based on single-electron transfer (SET)-induced decarboxylative radical generation directly on the polymer backbone. Specifically, SET from an organic photocatalyst (eosin Y) to a polymer containing redox-active phthalimide ester units under green light leads to the generation of reactive carbon-centered radicals on the polymer backbone. We utilized this approach to generate statistical olefin-acrylate copolymers by performing the decarboxylation in the presence of a hydrogen atom donor such that the backbone radical is capped by a hydrogen atom to yield an ethylene or propylene repeat unit. This method allows for the preparation of copolymers with previously inaccessible comonomer distributions and demonstrates the promise of applying SET-based transformations to address long-standing challenges in polymer chemistry.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1904631
- PAR ID:
- 10415782
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Polymer Chemistry
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 1759-9954
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 982 to 988
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/d1py01643a
