Synthesis and characterization of poly(methyl methacrylate) star polymers

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Abstract
Star‐branched poly(methyl methacrylate)s (PMMA) were synthesized by linking ‘living’ arms (produced by anionic polymerzation) with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. Stars having arm molecular weights of 10000 and 40000 and between 4.9 and 18.7 branches were produced. The polymers were characterized using light scattering, size exclusion chromatography, and viscometry. It was found that well‐defined PMMA stars were obtained only at the higher (40000) arm molecular weight. The stars prepared using the lower molecular weight (c. 10000) arms contained very high molecular weight gel components.