New Block Copolymers with Poly(N,N‐dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) as a Double Stimuli‐Responsive Block

The synthesis of several diblock copolymers with DMAEMA via anionic polymerization is presented; PS‐b‐PDMAEMA, PB‐b‐PDMAEMA, poly(p‐tert‐butoxystyrene)‐b‐PDMAEMA, and PEO‐b‐PDMAEMA. The latter was synthesized using sec‐butyllithium as initiator in presence of the phosphazene base t‐BuP4, enabling a facile changeover from an oxyanion to a carbanion. All reactions resulted in narrowly distributed block copolymers (PDI < 1.1). For PEO‐b‐PDMAEMA, diblock copolymers with a high blocking efficiency and a near‐narrow molecular weight distribution (PDI < 1.40) could be prepared. The advantage of the presented one‐pot synthesis is a significant higher blocking efficiency compared to commercially available PEO macroinitiators under similar conditions. magnified image