A Comprehensive Platform for the Design and Synthesis of Polymer Molecular Weight Distributions

The
molecular weight distribution (MWD) has a significant impact
on the properties of polymeric materials; however, the characterization
of polymer MWDs has been limited to statistical parameters such as
the number average molecular weight (Mn) and dispersity (Đ). These parameters do
not fully express the features of polymer MWDs, thus limiting the
ability to rationally design complex polymeric materials with tailored
MWDs. Herein, a platform for the design and synthesis of arbitrary
polymer MWDs is developed and experimentally validated. The platform
is based on the description of polymer MWDs as a mathematical function,
rather than individual statistical parameters. As such, the complete
shape of arbitrary polymer MWDs can be designed using developed software.
The software requires only a calibration using model monomodal MWDs
directly obtained from GPC to design theoretical MWD. Using this platform
in conjunction with a flow-mediated polymerization approach, a range
of arbitrarily shaped polymer MWDs were successfully designed and
prepared. Finally, complex triblock copolymer mixtures with tailored
compositions and overall MWD were fabricated via one-pass flow-mediated
polymerization using this computer-guided approach.