Synthesis and Characterization of [Poly(3-dodecylthiophene)]2Poly(methyl methacrylate) Miktoarm Star Copolymer

Abstract

We have introduced a facile synthetic route for well-defined [poly(3-dodecylthiophene)]2 poly(methyl methacrylate) miktoarm star copolymer (P3DDT2PMMA) by using a click reaction. For this purpose, PMMA with two ethynyl groups (PMMA-(≡)2) and ω-azidopropyl-P3DDT were synthesized. We found that the use of alkyl linker (here, propyl group) between P3DDT and azido group is very essential to minimize the steric hindrance arising from bulky side group in P3DDT during the click reaction. When we employed a slightly excess amount of the ω-azidopropyl-P3DDT, we obtained a well-defined P3DDT2PMMA with a narrow molecular weight distribution (polydispersity index <1.20) after selective removal of the unreacted ω-azidopropyl-P3DDT in a crude product by using column chromatography. We also investigated self-assembled structure of P3DDT2PMMA by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). P3DDT2PMMA with weight fraction of P3DDT block (wP3DDT) of 0.33 had lamellar microdomains, while a...