Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Copolymers using Monomer Sequence Controlled Living Anionic Polymerization

1,1-Diphenylethylene (DPE) and functional derivatives of DPE have been used to prepare a variety of novel copolymers by living anionic polymerization. This research focuses on exploiting reactivity ratios to prepare copolymers with a variety of structures including alternating, tapered, statistical and telechelic copolymers. The copolymers were analysed by a variety of techniques including 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry and transmission electron microscopy.