Brush Polymers Prepared by Grafting from Living Anionic Polymerization Approach

We have investigated the living anionic grafting polymerization of styrene from a lithiation product of poly(p-methylstyrene) (PpMS) as a polyanion macroinitiator for vinyl monomers. The macroinitiator was prepared by selective lithiation of tolyl groups on the PpMS by the addition of s-BuLi and tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) to a cyclohexane solution of the linear PpMS prepolymer under nitrogen. Multibranched polystyrenes, PpMS-g-PSt, with a relatively narrow molecular weight distribution were prepared by anionic graft polymerization of styrene from the macroinitiator.