Arborescent polymers and other dendrigraft polymers: A journey into structural diversity |
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Authors: | Mario Gauthier |
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Institution: | Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1 |
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Abstract: | Arborescent polymers are characterized by a dendritic, multilevel branched architecture derived from successive grafting reactions. In spite of their much larger size, these materials display properties analogous to dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers, the two other dendritic polymer families. The distinguishing features of arborescent polymers are their assembly from polymeric building blocks of uniform size and their very high molecular weights attained in few synthetic steps. This article offers an overview of the historical aspects of the development of dendrigraft polymers, starting from our initial efforts on the synthesis of arborescent polystyrenes. Major subsequent developments in the synthetic techniques from our and other research groups allowing the synthesis of dendrigraft copolymers, tailoring of the structural characteristics of the molecules, and further simplifications to their synthesis are also reviewed, with emphasis over the broad range of architectures attainable in these systems. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 3803–3810, 2007 |
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Keywords: | anionic polymerization branched dendrigraft polymers dendritic polymers graft copolymers living polymerization nanoheterogeneity polystyrene star polymers structure– property relations synthesis |
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