Facile method of controlling monomer sequence distributions in random copolymers

The random copolymers (RCP) with tunable monomer sequence distributions synthesized by performing chemical reaction on a parent homopolymer chain under varying solution conditions was presented. Copolymers were synthesized by brominating polystyrene (PS) and the size exclusion chromatography (SEC) experiments on polymers before and after bromination found that bromination increase the molecular weight of PS. The results show that Kerr constant is small for samples brominated under poor solvent conditions relative to the polymers brominated in good solvent conditions. The periodic sequences relative to random comonomer sequences are determined by rotating the values of its slopes. The difference in monomer sequence distribution is found to influence the partitioning of copolymers at interfaces.