One-pot preparation of BAB triblock copolymer nano-objects through bifunctional macromolecular RAFT agent mediated dispersion polymerizationElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental section, Table S1, Scheme S1, eqn (S1) and Fig. S1-S7. See DOI: 10.1039/c5py01917f

• Main Authors: Qu, Yaqing, Wang, Shuang, Khan, Habib, Gao, Chengqiang, Zhou, Heng, Zhang, Wangqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: 01.03.2016
• ISSN: 1759-9954; 1759-9962
• DOI: 10.1039/c5py01917f

One-pot preparation of the BAB triblock copolymer nano-objects of polystyrene- block -poly(4-vinylpyridine)- block -polystyrene (PS- b -P4VP- b -PS) containing a central solvophilic A block and two outer solvophobic B blocks through dispersion RAFT polymerization is proposed. Ascribed to the bifunctional macro-RAFT agent of bis(trithiocarbonate)-terminated poly(4-vinylpyridine) (TTC-P4VP-TTC), which contains two functional RAFT moieties at each terminal of the polymer backbone, the bifunctional TTC-P4VP-TTC macro-RAFT agent mediated dispersion polymerization affords the in situ synthesis of the PS- b -P4VP- b -PS triblock copolymer nano-objects. The parameters affecting the morphology of the PS- b -P4VP- b -PS triblock copolymer nano-objects are investigated, and it is found that the morphology of the PS- b -P4VP- b -PS nano-objects undergoes a transition from nanospheres, to worms, to vesicles and finally to lacunal nanospheres with the extension of the PS block during the dispersion RAFT polymerization. The bifunctional macro-RAFT agent mediated dispersion polymerization is demonstrated to be a valid method to prepare BAB triblock copolymer nano-objects with interesting morphology. Nano-assemblies of a BAB triblock copolymer containing a solvophilic A block and two solvophobic B blocks were prepared through dispersion RAFT polymerization.