Amphilic block copolymer precursors to cobalt polymer hybrids

CHED 680

Jeffrey A. Garber, Jeffrey.A.Garber@Dartmouth.edu, Anand Sundararaman, and Robert B. Grubbs, Robert.B.Grubbs@Dartmouth.edu. Department of Chemistry, Dartmouth College, 6128 Burke Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755
Metal-containing hybrid polymeric materials have promising applications as electronic or magnetic materials or as precursors to ceramics or metallic nanoparticles. Functional amphiphilic copolymers are particularly attractive as hybrid precursors since the chemical functionality can potentially locate the metal groups on a nanoscale. This study targets the synthesis and characterization of cobalt functionalized hybrid polymeric materials, focusing on a series of poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly((trimethylsilyl)ethynylstyrene) (PEO-b-PTMSES) polymers. Studies of the polymer and their cobalt adducts using infrared spectroscopy (IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), gel-permeation chromatography (GPC), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) support the formation of the hybrid materials.