Department of Polymeric Materials and Engineering, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Soft Condensed Matter, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Macromol Rapid Commun. 2021 Oct;42(19):e2100333. doi: 10.1002/marc.202100333. Epub 2021 Jul 4.
Polymerization-induced self-assembly via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)-mediated emulsion polymerization is an emerging method in which macro-RAFT agents are chain extended with hydrophobic monomers in water to form block copolymer nano-objects. However, almost all RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerizations are limited to AB diblock copolymers by using monofunctional macro-RAFT agents with non-reactive end groups. In this study, the first investigation on how the reactive end group of macro-RAFT agent affects RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerization is reported. Three macro-RAFT agents with different end groups are synthesized and employed in RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerization. Effects of end groups on morphologies of block copolymer nano-objects and polymerization process are studied. Block copolymer nano-objects prepared by using an asymmetric difunctional macro-RAFT agent can be functionalized by further chain extension on the surface. It is expected that the current study will not only expand the scope of RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerization, but also provide a novel strategy to prepare functional polymer nanoparticles.
通过可逆加成-断裂链转移（RAFT）介导的乳液聚合引发的聚合诱导自组装是一种新兴的方法，其中大分子 RAFT 试剂在水中与疏水性单体链延伸，形成嵌段共聚物纳米物体。然而，几乎所有的 RAFT 介导的乳液聚合都受到限制，只能使用带有非反应性端基的单官能大分子 RAFT 试剂来合成 AB 二嵌段共聚物。在这项研究中，首次报道了大分子 RAFT 试剂的反应性端基如何影响 RAFT 介导的乳液聚合。合成了三种具有不同端基的大分子 RAFT 试剂，并将其用于 RAFT 介导的乳液聚合中。研究了端基对嵌段共聚物纳米物体的形态和聚合过程的影响。通过进一步在表面上进行链延伸，可以对使用不对称双官能大分子 RAFT 试剂制备的嵌段共聚物纳米物体进行功能化。预计本研究不仅将扩展 RAFT 介导的乳液聚合的范围，而且还提供了一种制备功能聚合物纳米粒子的新策略。
