SYNTHESIS, THERMAL-DEGRADATION, AND SOLUT ION BEHAVIOR OF STAR-SHAPEDFULLERENE-CONTAINING POLYSTYRENES

Star-shaped polymers with C-60 fullerene as a core and polystyrene cha ins with preset molecular masses as arms were synthesized by anionic p olymerization. It was shown that it is possible to regulate the number of arms by varying the molar ratio of reagents (polystyryllithium : f ullerene) and introducing a complex-forming agent. The quantitative da ta on the mobility and hydrodynamic sizes of macromolecules were obtai ned. The experimental results are compared with the calculated data on the hydrodynamic radii of macromolecules with spherically-symmetric d istribution of the vectors of polystyrene arms. The degree of branchin g was estimated by comparison of the diffusion coefficients for the re al star-shaped macromolecule and its linear analog. It was discovered that the intensity of light scattering plotted versus concentration in solutions shows an abnormal pattern.