Anionic Synthesis and Rheological Characterization of Poly(p-methylstyrene) Model Comb Architectures with a Defined and Very Low Degree of Long Chain Branching

A method is presented for the synthesis of defined sparsely branched polystyrene‐based homopolymer model combs. By the use of poly(p‐methylstyrene) (PpMS) as backbone and side chains, a low, but well controlled amount of branching of typically less than 1 mol‐% (e.g., 1 branch per approx. 200 backbone C‐atoms) can be achieved. The used anionic synthesis offers full control of the molecular weight in combination with low polydispersity. Molecular weight and polydispersity were determined by SEC‐MALLS, confirming the well defined synthesis with low polydispersity ($\overline {{\rm M}} _{{\rm w}} /\overline {{\rm M}} _{{\rm n}} $