Morphology Transitions in RAFT Polymerization

Diverse nanostructural materials including spheres, nanorods, vesicles, and large compound vesicles have been created via formation of amphiphilic ABA triblock copolymers, self-assembling and morphology transition in the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization. The polymerization of styrene (St) was performed in a selective solvent, methanol, using S,S′-bis(α,α′-dimethyl-α′′-acetic acid)-trithiocarbonate terminated poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (PDMAa-TC) as macro chain transfer agent and stabilizer, and 1H NMR, and TEM were used to monitor the polymerization.