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Aqueous one-pot synthesis of epoxy-functional diblock copolymer worms from a single monomer: new anisotropic scaffolds for potential charge storage applications

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posted on 2019-09-13, 13:34 authored by Fiona HattonFiona Hatton, Albert M Park, Yiren Zhang, Gregory D Fuchs, Christopher K Ober, Steven P Armes

Nitroxide-functional polymers have garnered considerable interest in recent years and appear to hold promise for energy storage applications. However, their synthesis can be both expensive and time-consuming. Here, we propose a highly convenient method for the preparation of TEMPO-functional diblock copolymer nanoparticles directly in water. Epoxy-functional diblock copolymer worms are synthesized from a single monomer, glycidyl methacrylate (GlyMA), using a three-step, one-pot protocol in aqueous solution via polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). First, an initial aqueous emulsion of GlyMA was heated at 85 °C for 9 h to afford an aqueous solution of glycerol monomethacrylate (GMA). Then reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of GMA was conducted in aqueous solution using a dicarboxylic acid-based RAFT agent to produce a water-soluble PGMA homopolymer. Finally, chain extension of this pre-cursor block via RAFT aqueous emulsion polymerization of GlyMA at 50 °C produced amphiphilic diblock copolymer chains that self-assembled in situ to form a 15% w/w aqueous dispersion of diblock copolymer worms. These worms can be derivatized directly using 4-amino-TEMPO in aqueous solution, affording novel crosslinked anisotropic nanoparticles that contain a relatively high density of stable nitroxide radicals for potential charge storage applications

Funding

EPSRC for a Particle Technology Fellowship grant (EP/R003009/1)

ERC Advanced Investigator grant (PISA 320372)

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award DE-SC0014336

U.S. National Institute of Health under award number P41GM103521

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Materials

Published in

Polymer Chemistry

Volume

10

Issue

2

Pages

194 - 200

Publisher

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© Royal Society of Chemistry

Publisher statement

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Polymer Chemistry and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1039/c8py01427b

Acceptance date

2018-11-14

Publication date

2018-11-29

Copyright date

2019

ISSN

1759-9954

eISSN

1759-9962

Language

  • en

Depositor

Dr Fiona Hatton