A novel well-defined amphiphilic diblock copolymer containing perfluorocyclobutyl aryl ether-based hydrophobic segment

A series of well-defined binary hydrophilic-fluorophilic diblock copolymers were synthesized by successive atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of methoxylmethyl acrylate (MOMA) and 4-(4′-p-tolyloxyperfluorocyclobutoxy)benzyl methacrylate (TPFCBBMA) followed by the acidic selective hydrolysis of the hydrophobic poly(methoxymethyl acrylate) (PMOMA) segment into the hydrophilic poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) segment. ATRP of MOMA was initiated by 2-MBP at 50 °C in bulk to give two different PMOMA homopolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions (Mw/Mn ≤ 1.15). PMOMA-b-PTPFCBBMA well-defined diblock copolymers were synthesized by ATRP of TPFCBBMA at 90 °C in anisole using Br-end-functionalized PMOMA homopolymer as macroinitiator and CuBr/PMDETA as catalytic system. The final PAA-b-PTPFCBBMA amphiphilic diblock copolymers were obtained via the selective hydrolysis of PMOMA block in dilute HCl without affecting PTPFCBBMA block. The critical micelle concentrations (cmc) of PAA-b-PTPFCBBMA amphiphilic copolymers in aqueous media were determined by fluorescence spectroscopy using pyrene as probe and these diblock copolymers showed different micellar morphologies with the changing of the composition.