A facile route to segmented copolymers by fusing ambient temperature step-growth and RAFT polymerization

Thomas Gegenhuber; Alexander M Schenzel; Anja S Goldmann; Per B Zetterlund; Christopher Barner-Kowollik

doi:10.1039/c7cc06347d

A facile route to segmented copolymers by fusing ambient temperature step-growth and RAFT polymerization

Chem Commun (Camb). 2017 Sep 26;53(77):10648-10651. doi: 10.1039/c7cc06347d.

Authors

Thomas Gegenhuber¹, Alexander M Schenzel, Anja S Goldmann, Per B Zetterlund, Christopher Barner-Kowollik

Affiliation

¹ School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia. christopher.barnerkowollik@qut.edu.au.

PMID: 28902196
DOI: 10.1039/c7cc06347d

Abstract

We introduce the facile synthesis of segmented copolymers by a catalyst-free Diels-Alder (DA) reaction at ambient temperature via step-growth and subsequent reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. High molecular weight step-growth polymers are readily obtained (M_w = 40 000 g mol^-1), featuring trithiocarbonate moieties in their chain, which allow monomer insertion via RAFT polymerization yielding high molecular weight species.