Structure and hydrodynamical properties of heteroarm star-shaped C60 fullerene-containing polymers

Multifunctional initiator with six active centers for anionic polymerization of polar vinyl monomers based on hexaadduct of polystyryllithium with C60 fullerene was obtained. Star-shaped polymers with fullerene C60 as branching center and polystyrene and poly-(2-vinylpyridine) arms were synthesized using anionic polymerization techniques; the conditions of modification of macroinitiator (hexaadduct of polystyryllithium with fullerene C60) were varied. Translational diffusion and viscometry in benzene solutions were used to determine molecular masses and functionality (f) of heteroarm molecules. It was shown that during the formation of heteroarm macromolecules, the determining stage is the process of modification of hexaadduct with 1.1-diphenylethylene. If the synthesis is performed under the conditions when the elimination of living polystyrene chains from hexaadduct-precursor is possible, heteroarm polymers have, on average, four arms of polystyrene and four arms of poly-(2-vinylpyridine). When the synthesis is performed under optimized conditions in nonpolar medium, star-shaped molecules with total number of arms close to 12 were obtained.