Dendrigraft polystyrene initiated by poly(p-chloromethyl styrene): synthesis and properties

Dendrigraft polystyrene was prepared using poly(p-chloromethyl styrene) as the multicentre initiator by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). T he resulting polymer was characterized with light scattering, intrinsic vis cosity, thermal analysis and atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging. The AFM . image showed there were two kinds of different structural dendrigraft pol ystyrenes in the product, ie the 'coupling' dendrigraft polystyrene and 'fr ee' dendrigraft polystyrene. The 'coupling' structure might result from the coupling reaction of growing radical chain ends. The second virial coeffic ient A(2) and intrinsic viscosity of the dendrigraft polystyrene were small er than those of the relative Linear and twelve-arm star polystyrene, and t he thermal analysis showed that the initial decomposition temperature was a little higher than that of linear polystyrene. (C) 1999 Society of Chemica l Industry.