Controlling primary chain dispersity in network polymers: elucidating the effect of dispersity on degradation

作者：Takanori Shimizu, Richard Whitfield, Glen R. Jones, Ibrahim O. Raji, Dominik Konkolewicz, Nghia P. Truong, Athina Anastasaki · 发表于：Chemical Science · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1039/d3sc05203f · 被引用次数：22 · 研究领域：Advanced Polymer Synthesis and Characterization、Conducting polymers and applications、biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties

crosslinking of the propagating polymer chains was achieved in a quantitative manner. The incorporation of a degradable crosslinker, not only enables the accurate quantification of the various primary chain dispersities, post-synthesis, but also allows the investigation and comparison of their respective degradation profiles. Notably, the highest dispersity networks resulted in a 40% increase in degradation time when compared to their lower dispersity analogues, demonstrating that primary chain dispersity has a substantial impact on the network degradation rate. Our experimental findings were further supported by simulations, which emphasized the importance of higher molecular weight polymer chains, found within the high dispersity materials, in extending the lifetime of the network. This methodology presents a new and promising avenue to precisely tune primary chain dispersity within networks and demonstrates that polymer dispersity is an important parameter to consider when designing degradable materials.