Facile Synthesis of an Eight-Armed Star-Shaped Polymer via Coordination-Driven Self-Assembly of a Four-Armed Cavitand.

The polystyrene chains were installed at the lower rim of a resorcinarene-based cavitand via reversible addition-fragmentation (RAFT) polymerization to form a four-armed star-shaped polymer. A star-shaped polystyrene-functionalized supramolecular capsule was prepared through the coordination-driven self-assembly of the four-armed start-shaped polymer with silver ions. The eight-armed start-shaped supramolecular capsule encapsulated 4,4'-diacetoxybiphenyl as did a cavitand-based self-assembled capsule. A DOSY measurement indicated that the eight-armed star-shaped polymer was twice as large as the four-armed star-shaped polymer. The solution behaviors of these compounds resulted in a difference in their zero-shear viscosities.