Characterization of metallo-supramolecular block copolymers by analytical ultracentrifugation

Abstract

Applications of analytical ultracentrifugation in the field of synthetic polymers have followed a clearly increasing trend in the past few years, concerning the variety of investigated samples, experimental approaches, and methods of data analysis. We report a characterization study of two metallo-supramolecular diblock copolymers with different block lengths and of a chain extended metallosupramolecular polymer. The analysis of sedimentation velocity and sedimentation equilibrium profiles was discussed in detail and the results were compared to each other, to determine the molar mass distribution and the state of association in solution. A simple method for determining the average translational diffusion coefficients is proposed and discussed relative to other methods. The average values of the molar mass and sedimentation coefficient distributions, the average friction coefficients, and size information were obtained and discussed. © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.