Polymerization in nanostructured media: applications to the synthesis of associative polymers

Bioinspired Block Copolymers: Translating Structural Features from Proteins to Synthetic Polymers

“…In fact, hydrophobic domains can be nanostructured when fluorocarbon building blocks are employed, [8,22,[24][25][26] due to the mutual poor compatibility of fluorocarbons and most hydrocarbon derivatives. Though singular impressive examples have been reported most recently, [22,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] and some theoretical consideration has been given to the topic [45][46][47][48][49][50][51] the number of suited block polymers is still marginal. In fact, the synthesis of ternary amphiphilic block copolymers is far from trivial, in particular of such containing fluorocarbon blocks, e.g., due to difficulties in finding an inert common good solvent for all blocks.…”

Compatibilization of Immiscible Polymer Networks Through Photopolymerization in a Lyotropic Liquid Crystal

“…[10] Using tailored block copolymers to reduce the phase-separated domains to the micrometer scale has recently been proposed as one of the most efficient methods for polymer-blend compatibilization. [11][12][13][14] Although the use of block copolymers as compatibilizing additives at low concentrations has been well studied, little to no work has focused on the compatibilizing effects of self-assembling morphologies including lyotropic liquid-crystal (LLC) formations that occur with higher concentrations of these surfactants. LLC mesophases, formed from the self-as-sembly of surfactants that include diblock and triblock copolymers, have emerged as a promising approach towards the synthesis of functional organic nanomaterials in the last decade.…”

Synthesis and characterization of new alternating, amphiphilic, comblike copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide) macromonomer and N‐phenylmaleimide

“…An increase in the viscosity was observed in both experiments, too. As Candau et al16 explained, this increase in the viscosity was proof that the hydrophobic groups in the macromonomers associated in three‐dimensional buildings into micelles, and this behavior is of great technological interest for a large number of applications 50. The alternating copolymerization of an ionic, surface‐active, low‐molecular‐weight monomer with an electron‐donating character with electron‐accepting comonomers in micellar systems has been hardly reported in the literature 51–53.…”

“…Therefore, it is possible to manipulate the supramolecular structures on a nanoscopic scale. The free‐radical polymerization reactions in nanostructured media such as micelles or microemulsion polymerizations as the controlled self‐assembly of specific amphiphilic molecules not only represent an enormous challenge for fundamental research but also have many potential nanotechnological applications allowing the synthesis of samples with controlled architectures and well‐defined characteristics 16, 17…”