Complex Macromolecular Chimeras

Recently, Hadjichristidis, Hirao, and coworkers synthesized complex macromolecular chimeras (a Greek term), which include novel multicomponent linear and miktoarm star polymers containing polypeptide blocks based on a high-vacuum technique (Karatzas et al., 2008). Indeed, 3-arm AB2,3-arm ABC, 4-arm A2B2, and 4-arm AB2C were synthesized, where A, B, and C were polypeptides, PS, and PI or poly(a-methylstyrene) (PaMS), respectively (Figure 13.3). 

Although, there are many reviews on linear diblock chimeras, only a very few have addressed the synthesis of polypeptide-based materials with different macromolecular architectures (Hadjichristidis et al., 2009 Deming, 2006 Deming, 2000). In this chapter our discussion on the synthesis of well-defined complex chimeras, including linear multiblock co/ terpolymer, as well as nonlinear copolymer chimeras (e.g. star, graft, block-graft, dendritic), will hopefully enrich the current literature on macromolecular chimeras. This chapter will not address the self-assembly of these complex chimeras since this issue is discussed in another chapter of this volume. 

---