Colloidal Assembly of Patchy Polymer Brush Particles utilizing efficient Ligation Strategies

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In the proposed project, block-type molecular polymer brushes will be used as colloidal building blocks to build supramolecular structures via efficient ligations reactions in solution. In this novel approach, polymer assembly is achieved by a chemical reaction. The project will develop new concepts of particle assembly, which contrast commonly applied for self-assembly methods for the generation of micelles, vesicles, or other hierarchical two- or three-dimensional structures using amphiphilic block copolymers. In contrast to purely self-assembled systems, in the proposed project no physical but covalent bonds are exploited to obtain supramolecular assemblies. The formation of the superstructures will be similar to step-growth polymerisation but using polymer particles as monomers instead. Covalent bonds – in contrary to physical bonds – are less sensitive to environmental changes and – if carefully selected – can be switched on and off. In a first step, the molecular polymer brushes are synthesized via reversible deactivation radical polymerization and ring-opening polymerization to yield triblock copolymer brushes. By decorating the end-groups of the polymer brushes side chains accordingly, i.e. with complementary functionalities, a covalent polymer assembly can be triggered. With respect to current state of the art concepts in literature, the proposal offers great potential, since reversible chemical reactions benefit a precise modular assembly and dissolution of supramolecular structures.