Synthesis of Block Copolymers by Chemical Modification

Chemical strategies for obtaining new block copolymers by simple and efficient transformation reactions are covered in Chapter 7. Classical organic chemistry reactions can be adapted in order to chemically transform preformed block copolymers to novel materials. These include catalytic hydrogenation, hydrolysis, sulfonation, quaternization, chloromethylation, hydrosilylation and other type of reactions that can be used as postpolymerization techniques for obtaining block copolymers having distinctly different properties from their precursors. The criteria for adapting postpolymerization reactions are discussed in parallel with examples of synthetic routes reported so far.