Search

Electron-deficient borinic acid monomers and corresponding polymers were synthesized with different substituents via a one-pot reaction of Grignard reagents with trimethoxyborane and reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, respectively. Further investigations of substituent effects of borinic acid polymers (PBAs) were carried out, indicating that the thermoresponsive properties of PBAs benefit from the increase of steric hindrance of PBA substituent, while the binding affinity of PBAs with Alizarin Red S, 8-hydroxyquinoline (HQ), and fluoride ion decreases with the increase of steric hindrance of substituent. Attributed to the strong dative N → B bond and the strongly luminescent boron quinolate, the application of phenyl PBA for fluorescence detection of HQ is realized with high sensitivity at the ppm level. These results therefore confirm that borinic acid-containing polymer is a new type of stimuli-responsive polymer in the field of thermoresponsiveness over a wide temperature ...

The assembly behavior of diblock copolymers in solution can be modulated by block length, block ratio, solvent properties, and preparation route. Different assembly morphologies such as spherical micelles, cylindrical micelles, vesicles, and large compound vesicles have been obtained for diblock copolymers with shorter solvated block, such as poly(acrylic acid)-b-polystyrene (PAA-b-PSt). In the present work, we reported an easy-going route to prepare PAA-b-PSt assemblies with different morphologies through reversible addition−fragmentation-transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization of styrene in methanol with trithiocarbonated PAA as macromolecular chain transfer agent. Because this RAFT dispersion polymerization exhibited controlled features, the consecutive growth of PSt block led to the successive transition of the obtained PAA-b-PSt assemblies from spherical micelles, cylindrical micelles, vesicles, to large compound vesicles, confirmed by the combination of electron microscopy, laser light scattering,...

The atom transfer radical dispersion polymerization of 4-vinylpyridine (4VP) in an ethanol/H2O mixture displayed two stages of polymerization; the first stage is the formation of a diblock copolymer with the polymerization rate of 1.21 mol·L-1·h-1 before 1 h of polymerization, and the second is the main polymerization in micelles formed from the aggregation of the resultant block copolymers with the polymerization rate of 0.009 mol·L-1·h-1. The 2-bromoisobutyryl-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether used in the polymerization acts as both a stabilizer and an initiator. The stable micelles with functional core were synthesized by a one-pot strategy via atom transfer radical dispersion copolymerization (ATRDCP) of 4VP and N,N‘-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) in an ethanol/H2O solution for the first time. In the initial stage of polymerization, 4VP and MBA were copolymerized to form a block copolymer, PEG-b-(4VP-co-MBA), with pendent unreacted vinyl groups, and after phase separation at a critical chain...