RAFT Polymerization: A Powerful Tool for the Synthesis and Study of Oligomers

摘要

We demonstrate the ability of the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) process to produce well-defined oligomers of n-butyl acrylate (nBA) and styrene (St) of narrow molecular weight distribution (i.e., Ds ≤1.2) and degrees of polymerization (DPs) ranging from 9 to 27. We use these oligomers to study the effect of molecular weight (MW) and end groups on the thermal properties, in particular the glass transition temperature (T_g) of the materials. The T_g of PnBA oligomers is found to be relatively independent of end groups and MW, whilst the T_g of PSt oligomers is affected by the nature of end groups, and increases with MW. This work shows that, beyond its versatility for polymer synthesis, RAFT polymerisation can also be used to assess fundamental physical properties of materials.