Polythiophene-polystyrene graft copolymers

OKnga, T., and B. Franfois. 1991. Synthesis of soluble polystyrene-graft-polythiophene comblike copolymers A new precursor for polythiophene film preparation. Makromol Chem Rapid Commun 12 575-582. 

Francois and coworkers reported on the synthesis of polystyrene-polythiophene block and graft copolymers [142-144]. These materials incorporate the unique properties of polythiophenes with ease of solubilization and processing. The reported block copolymers showed nearly the same spectral characteristics as pure polythiophene and the authors proved that their block... 

RAFT polymerization or nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) was used instead of ATRP for the synthesis of the block copolymer of polythiophene and polyisoprene or polystyrene, because ATRP generates materials containing traces of metals from the catalyst [146]. A block copolymer of P3HT and poly (perylene bisimide acrylate) was also synthesized by NMP from a polythiophene macroinitiator (Scheme 51) [147, 148]. This block copolymer is a crystalline-crystalline donor-acceptor block copolymer and shows microphase separation, implying efficient photovoltaic applications. A similar polythiophene macroinitiator for NMP was used for the synthesis of fullerene-grafted rod-coil block copolymers [149]. 

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