Controlling Architecture in Molecular Bottlebrushes

This work explores the synthesis of molecular bottlebrushes with complex architectures and their applications in various areas of material science. The first chapter reviews current progress in the bottlebrush field, focusing on recent advances in the areas of synthesis, physical properties and potential applications of bottlebrushes. Chapters II
to IV discuss the relationship between structural details of homocomponent brushes and their physical properties. Chapter II summarizes the synthesis of graft copolymers with varying grafting densities, and lengths of the side chains and backbones, followed by the correlation of the graft structure with a thermal diffusion behavior. Chapter III describes the effect of the graft length on viscoelasticity of brushes with a constant backbone size. The work in Chapter IV introduces a new class of cylindrical brushes with bimodal length of side chains, and discusses their behavior on surfaces. The following Chapters (V and VI) cover the use of functional ATRP multiinitiators as a method of tuning the
structure of bottlebrushes. Chapter V describes several examples of diinitiators incorporated into the brush core to either embed a labelled tag or to incorporate a mechanosensitive group. Chapter VI focuses on the use of more complex ATRP multiinitiator with a molecular spoked wheel core that allows for the formation of mechanosensitve molecular stars. The final Chapter VII discusses ABA triblock brushes inspired by the structure of a lubrication protein, and discusses their applications as lubricants in aqueous and organic media.