Dendronized polymers with tailored surface groups

A series of polymers tethered with bis‐MPA dendrons was synthesized by a combination of divergent growth and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Macromonomers of first and second generation were synthesized utilizing the acetonide protected anhydride of bis‐MPA as the generic esterfication agent. The macromonomers were polymerized in a controlled fashion by ATRP utilizing Cu(I)/Cu(II) and N ‐propyl‐2‐pyridylmethanamine as the halogen/ligand system. The end‐groups of these polymers were further tailored to achieve hydroxyl, acetate, and aliphatic hexadecyl functionality. With this approach all polymers will emanate from the same backbone, enabling for an evaluation of both the generation and end‐group dependent properties. Furthermore, a dendronized tri‐block copolymer was synthesized. All materials were analyzed by 1 H and 13 C NMR, as well as size‐exclusion chromatography (SEC). The SEC analysis revealed that the molecular weights of the divergently grown dendronized polymers increased with increasing generation while the polydispersity (PDI) was kept low.