Helical Star-Shaped Bottlebrush Polymers: From Controlled Synthesis to Tunable Photoluminescence and Circularly Polarized Luminescence

The controlled synthesis of star-shaped bottlebrush polymers with tunable topologies is a challenge. However, such materials may exhibit distinct photoluminescence properties. Bottlebrush polymers have polymerization-induced emission (PIE) properties due to their aggregated side chains, and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is also a unique luminescent property. In this work, we prepared a variety of highly active alkyne Pd catalysts and polymerized poly(L/D-lactic acid) macromonomers containing polymerizable phenylisocyanide groups as end groups to obtain a variety of topologically structured bottlebrush polymers with controllable molecular weights and narrow molecular weight distributions. Bottlebrush polymers with tetraphenyl ethylene (TPE) units as the core exhibit tunable photoluminescence and circularly polarized luminescence properties. We propose that such properties are due to the unique AIE characteristics of the TPE unit combined with the PIE characteristics of the bottlebrush polymer.