Synthesis of multiarm star poly(glycerol)-block-poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)

Well-defined multiarm star block copolymers poly(glycerol)-b-poly(2-hydroxyethyI methacrylate) (PG-b-PHEMA) with an average of 56, 66, and 90 PHEMA arms, respectively, have been prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of HEMA in methanol by a core-first strategy. The hyperbranched macroinitiators employed were prepared on the basis of well-defined hyperbranched polyglycerol by esterification with 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide. Polydispersites M-w/M-n of the new multiarm stars were in the range of 1.11-1.82. Unexpectedly, with the combination of CuCl/CuBr2/2,2 '-bipyridy1 as catalyst, the polymerization conversion can be driven to maximum values of 79%. The control of CuCl catalyst concentration is also very important to achieve high conversion and narrow polydispersity. The absolute M-n values of the obtained multiarm star polymers were in good agreement with the calculated ones, and the highest M,, values of the multiarm star copolymer is around 10(6) g/mol. Kinetic analysis shows that an induction period exists in the polymerization of HEMA. After this induction period, a linear dependence of In ([M](o)/[M](t)) on time was observed. Due to the star architecture, the viscosity of the obtained multiarm star PHEMA is much lower than that of linear PHEMA.