Creating heteropolymers with adjustable monomer sequences via
templated chemical "coloring"
Jan Genzer
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7905 USA
Heteropolymers with adjustable monomer sequences (HAMS)
represent a new type of functional random copolymers that could
play an important role in emerging areas pertaining to
interfacial science and polymer assembly. Due to their disordered
but tailorable co-monomer sequence distribution HAMS are capable
of adsorbing selectively at interfaces and recognizing patterns
on chemical targets (i.e., chemically patterned substrates). HAMS
are synthesized in a laboratory by "coloring" the segments of a
collapsed homopolymer, A, with a functionalizing agent, B, and
then unraveling the resultant polymer to yield a random sequence
of A and B blocks, which "remembers" its original collapsed
conformation and hence prefers some conformations over others. In
the presentation, we will provide details pertaining to the
experimental formation of HAMS and studying their
physico-chemical characteristics. We will also provide examples
of a few case studies that unravel the tailorable interfacial and
self-assembly character of HAMS made of
poly(styrene-co-4-bromostyrene) and its derivatives. In addition,
we present results of computer simulation studies providing
molecular insight into forming HAMS.
