Synthesis of ABA type thermoplastic elastomers based on polyacrylates

ABA type triblock copolymer was synthesized by a linking reaction of the AB type diblock copolymer using a linking reagent for the living polymer macroanions. A block were either polystyrene or poly(2-vinylpyridine) (2VP) or polydienes rich in 1,4 microstructure (subsequently converted to polyethylene by hydrogenation) and B block as poly(tert-butyl acrylate) (tBuA). The living macroanions of P(St-b-tBuA) were linked with a stoichiometric amount of high-purity terephthaloyl chloride. Size exclusion chromatography revealed the effectiveness of the approach for the synthesis of linear triblock copolymers of P(St-b-tBuA-b-St).