Versatile synthesis of siloxane‐based graft copolymers with tunable grafting density

Abstract

AbstractA versatile synthetic platform is reported that affords high molecular weight graft copolymers containing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) backbones and vinyl‐based polymer side chains with excellent control over molecular weight and grafting density. The synthetic approach leverages thiol‐ene click chemistry to attach an atom‐transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiator to a variety of commercially available poly(dimethylsiloxane‐co‐methylvinylsiloxane) backbones (PDMS‐co‐PVMS), followed by controlled radical polymerization with a wide scope of vinyl monomers. Selective degradation of the siloxane backbone with tetrabutylammonium fluoride confirmed the controlled nature of side‐chain growth via ATRP, yielding targeted side‐chain lengths for copolymers containing up to 50% grafting density and overall molecular weights in excess of 1 MDa. In addition, by using a mixture of thiols, grafting density and functionality can be further controlled by tuning initiator loading along the backbone. For example, solid‐state fluorescence of the graft copolymers was achieved by incorporating a thiol‐containing fluorophore along the siloxane backbone during the thiol‐ene click reaction. This simple synthetic platform provides facile control over the properties of a wide variety of grafted copolymers containing flexible PDMS backbones and vinyl polymer side chains.