1.4 Unprecedented Chain-growth Polymerization Method to Access Structurally Defined Hyperbranched Polymers
(Room 243-245)
09 Apr 18
4:00 PM
-
4:30 PM
Tracks:
Session 1: Powder Coatings, Session 1: Science Today - Coatings Tomorrow
To provide robust and affordable polymer materials, one thrust in polymer chemistry is to develop efficient and inexpensive polymerization method that can prepare well-defined polymers with precisely controlled structures, compositions and dimensions. These polymers could be translated into functional materials for specific applications, such as self-healing materials, nanocomposites, coatings, lubricants, microelectronics and nanomedicines. In this research, funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Division of Chemistry, Professor Haifeng Gao at the University of Notre Dame develops a facile one-pot one-batch polymerization method that can prepare functional polymers with highly branched structures and very narrow size distribution. This research seeks to develop a conceptually new polymerization method that applies the copper (Cu)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) polymerization of ABm (m is greater than or equal to 2) monomers to form polytriazole-based hyperbranched polymers in one pot. An important feature of this method is the confinement of the Cu catalyst within each hyperbranched polymer molecule, resulting in a chain-growth polymerization mechanism with a linear increase of polymer molecular weight and decreased polydispersity with reaction conversion.