Research abstract

 Our research target is developing new functional soft materials based on the fine material design. We design polymers in terms of the polymerization control and the reaction analysis, observe the higher-order structures of polymers, and aim for the application/functionalization of polymers. We deal with Polymer Synthesis, Properties and Functionalizations, which aims for the development and the application of novel soft materials.

 Living radical polymeization provides many kinds of polymers with control of the chain length, end-functional groups, and the composition of copolymerization. Recently, polymers with control of topology were synthesized, for example, star polymers, hyperbranched polymers, and bottlebrush polymers.

 We first achieved in the synthesis of concentrated polymer brushes (CPBs) by surface-initiated living radical polymerization, which occupy the surface of materials more than one order of magnitude higher than that of typical semi-dilute polymer brushes. We discovered the chains in CPBs in good solvent were highly extended, nearly to their full lengths, and highly resistant against compression because of the extremely high osmotic pressure in the CPB layers in good solvent. Also we found CPBs' unique properties such as great repulsion, non-penetration, super lubrication with an extremely low frictional coefficient, and size exclusion. CPBs are expected to provide the development in the field of material science.

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