Tailoring the Architecture of Molecular Bottlebrushes via Click Grafting-Onto Strategy

Molecular bottlebrush (MBB) refer to a synthetic macromolecule, in which a mass of polymeric side chains (SCs) are covalently connected to a macromolecular backbone densely, representing an important type of unimolecular nanomaterial. The chemical composition, size, shape, and surface property of MBB can be precisely tailored by varying the backbones and SCs as well as the grafting density (Gdst ). Meanwhile, the topological structure of backbones and SCs can also significantly affect the chemical and physical properties of MBBs. For the past few years, by combining the structure features of MBB, the polymers with diverse architectures using MBB as building block are synthesized, including linear, branched, and cyclic MBB etc. These promising architectural features will bring MBBs with diverse architectures and lots of applications in advanced materials. For this reason, this work is interested in giving a briefly summary of the recent progress on tailor of well-defined MBBs with diverse architectures using grafting-onto strategy combined with controlled polymerization technique.

Mimicking the Natural World with Nanoarchitectonics for Self-Assembled Superstructures

Scientists are often inspired by nature, where naturally occurring morphologies, such as those that resemble animals and plants, can be created in the lab. In this review, we have provided an overview on complex superstructures of animals, plants and some similar shapes from the natural world. We begin this review with a discussion about the formation of various animal-like shapes from small organic molecules and polymers, and then move onto plants and other selected shapes. Literature surveys reveal that most of the polymers studied tend to form micellar structures, with some exceptions. Nevertheless, small organic molecules tend to form not only micellar structures but also other animal shapes such as worms and caterpillars. These superstructures tend to have high surface areas and variable surface morphology, making them very useful material for applications in various field such as catalysis, solar cells, and biomedicine, amongst others.

Synthesis and Visualization of bottlebrush-shaped segmented hyperbranched polymers

Visualization of single molecular morphology provides an intuitive evidence to understand the relationships of molecular structure-synthetic method. Herein, by combining the architectural features of molecular bottlebrush (MBB) and segmented hyperbranched...

High-Yield Synthesis of Molecular Bottlebrushes via PISA-Assisted Grafting-from Strategy

To prepare molecular bottlebrushes with high yield via a grafting-from strategy using a reversible deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) technique has always been a big challenge due to the intra- and intermolecular radical-radical coupling. Herein, a polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA)-assisted grafting-from strategy based on reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization was developed to synthesize the Janus molecular bottlebrushes with a well-defined structure and high yield using polynorbornene-g-(poly(ethylene glycols)-branch-RAFT agent) (PNB-g-(PEG-branch-CTA)) as a solvophilic multifunctional macro-CTA. The results indicated the biradical coupling terminations of propagating side chains could be significantly suppressed due to the nanoconfinement effect in the PISA of the generated Janus molecular bottlebrushes. Janus molecular bottlebrushes with a narrow molecular weight distribution (M_w/M_n < 1.25) and negligible intermolecular cross-linking at monomer conversion as high as 84% were prepared, demonstrating the efficiency and versatility of the PISA-assisted grafting-from approach.