Abstract
Bottlebrush polymers are highly branched macromolecules with potential applications in antifouling coatings, rheological modifiers, and drug delivery systems. However, the solution conformation of bottlebrush polymers has been studied in only a limited set of materials made primarily by grafting-from polymerization. Here we present small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements on a series of polystyrene bottlebrush polymers with varying side-chain and backbone lengths in d8-toluene to analyze their size, shape, and conformation. Bottlebrush polymers with 2–7 kg mol–1 polystyrene side chains (degree of polymerization DP = 14–54) and poly(oxanorbornene) backbones (DP = 10–264) were synthesized using reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) followed by a ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) grafting-through synthesis scheme. Analysis by Guinier–Porod, rigid cylinder, and flexible cylinder models provided estimates of the bottlebrush polymer length, radius, and stiffness. The bott...
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