Paper Number
SM28 

Session
Polymer Solutions & Melts

Title
Linear rheology of entangled bulk polymers functionalized with metal-ligand interactions

Presentation Date and Time
February 15, 2017 (Wednesday) 10:00

Track / Room
Track 5 / Snowy Egret

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

1. Zhuge, Flanco (Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences - BSMA)
2. Brassinne, Jérémy (Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences - BSMA)
3. Fustin, Charles-André (Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences - BSMA)
4. Gohy, Jean-François (Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences - BSMA)
5. Van Ruymbeke, Evelyne (Université catholique de Louvain, Bio and Soft Matter, Inst. on Cond. Matter and Nano-science)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Flanco Zhuge, Jérémy Brassinne, Charles-André Fustin, Jean-François Gohy, and Evelyne Van Ruymbeke
Bio and Soft Matter, Inst. on Cond. Matter and Nano-science, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve B-1348, Belgium

Speaker / Presenter 
Zhuge, Flanco

Text of Abstract
The advent of supramolecular chemistry in the last decades has provided powerful tools to form “smart” materials with the ability of molecules to self-assemble. They rely on intelligent macromolecules or (supra-)molecular motifs to adapt their structure and properties towards external triggers.¹ However most of these self-assembled materials are studied in solution because commonly used polymers have a glass transition above the room temperature. But if the material is a fluid itself, i.e. flexible polymers with a glass transition below the ambient temperature, they can be investigated in bulk as soft materials.² Reversible polymeric networks obtained by functionalizing flexible polymer chains with associating units constitutes an interesting and useful class of soft material because of the richness in their rheological behavior such as stimuli-responsiveness, adaptability or healing feature.³

Here, we study the linear viscoelastic properties of a series of low dispersity poly (n-butyl acrylate) chains functionalized with 2,2';6',2"-terpyridine, able to self-associate through metal-ligand coordination. Depending on the topology and functionality of the chains, the polymers with low dispersity (Ð < 1.3) self-assemble into metallo-supramolecular bulk structures once metal ions are added. Upon self-assembly, linear building blocks form longer entangled chains while four-arm stars can form entangled networks. The properties of the obtained materials can be finely tuned depending on the length of the polymer chains and the type of metal. In this respect, a control is gained over the dynamics of this class of metallo-supramolecular assemblies. Hence, they are extremely interesting for specific applications such as adhesives or mechano-sensors.

1. Gels 2015, 1, 235. Macromolecules 2014, 47, 4514. 2. Macromolecules 2015, 48, 7320. Polymer 2015, 69, 233.