Precise Synthesis of Regular and Asymmetric Star Polymers and Densely Branched Polymers with Starlike Structures by Means of Living Anionic Polymerization

The subject of this review is to present new synthetic methodologies recently developed by us, which are applicable to both regular and asymmetric star polymers with well-defined architectures. The first methodology involves the coupling reaction of a variety of living anionic polymers of styrene, α-methylstyrene, isoprene, tert-butyl methacrylate, and ethylene oxide with novel chain-end- and in-chain-functionalized polymers with a definite number of benzyl halide moieties intentionally designed as polymeric coupling agents. In the second methodology, we propose a new concept based on iterative approach, with which star polymers can be successively and, in principle, unlimitedly synthesized by repeating the iterative reaction sequence. Finally, a convenient synthesis of densely branched polymers with starlike structures is presented by the quantitative coupling reaction of living anionic polymers with reactive benzyl halide-functionalized backbone polymers based on a grafting-onto method.