Synthesis of dendronized polymers and their self-assembly to nanostructured materials

Our lab. has recently demonstrated that wedge-type block copolymers, synthesized by ruthenium-mediated ring-opening metathesis polymn. (ROMP) of exo-norbornene functionalized monomers, self-assembled to visible light reflecting dielec. mirrors. Polymers with mol. wts. greater than 1250 kDa failed to self-assemble to well-defined nanostructured materials due to a heightened propensity for chain entanglement. Thus, a new dendritic-like monomer system was designed to increase the rigidity of the block copolymers and minimize the capability for chain entanglement. The synthesis of the dendronized monomers, their polymn. via ROMP to block copolymers, and the self-assembly of these rigid block copolymers will be discussed in this presentation.