Issue 21, 2023

Influence of the dispersity and molar mass distribution of conjugated polymers on the aggregation type and subsequent chiral expression

Abstract

This study aims to determine the influence of the dispersity on the aggregation of conjugated polymers and their subsequent chiral expression. Dispersity has been thoroughly investigated for industrial polymerizations, but research on conjugated polymers is lacking. Nonetheless, knowledge thereof is crucial for controlling the aggregation type (type I versus type II) and its influence is therefore investigated. For that purpose, a series of polymers is synthesized via metered initiator addition, resulting in dispersities ranging from 1.18–1.56. The lower dispersity polymers yield type II aggregates and the resulting symmetrical electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra while the higher dispersity polymers are predominantly type I due to the longer chains effectively acting as a seed and therefore yield asymmetrical ECD spectra. Furthermore, a monomodal and bimodal molar mass distribution of similar dispersity are compared, demonstrating that bimodal distributions show both aggregation types and therefore more disorder, leading to a decrease in chiral expression.

Graphical abstract: Influence of the dispersity and molar mass distribution of conjugated polymers on the aggregation type and subsequent chiral expression

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Feb 2023
Accepted
09 May 2023
First published
10 May 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2023,19, 3794-3802

Influence of the dispersity and molar mass distribution of conjugated polymers on the aggregation type and subsequent chiral expression

A. Van Oosten, C. Verduyckt, J. De Winter, P. Gerbaux and G. Koeckelberghs, Soft Matter, 2023, 19, 3794 DOI: 10.1039/D3SM00163F

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