Abstract

Living radical polymer synthesis enables novel and interesting polymer architectures to be synthesized with relative ease. One such polymer design is the core cross-linked star polymer (CCS polymer). This polymer has received much attention from a synthetic point of view, but the rheology of these polymers has not been characterised in detail.

This study presents the results of a rheological study of various CCS polymer solutions covering a range of different architectures and flow conditions. The polymer solutions have been shown to give an almost Newtonian response up to relatively high molecular weights and concentrations. At very high concentrations and molecular weights, the response becomes more polymeric in its nature. It is hoped that this relatively preliminary work will provide some insight into the potential application of these polymers which could include such areas as the film forming component of paint, rheology modifiers for plastics processing and drug delivery agents among many other possibilities.