New Generation\nof Thermoplastic Elastomers from Narrowly\nDispersed All-(Meth)acrylic ABA Triblock Copolymers Made by RAFT

Symmetrical\ntrithiocarbonate (TTC) bis(2-cyanopropan-2-yl)trithiocarbonate\n(<b>TTC-bCP</b>) was investigated in reversible addition–fragmentation\nchain transfer polymerization for the synthesis of a library of well-defined\nall-meth(acrylic) ABA triblock copolymers with thermoplastic elastomeric\nproperties. In addition to standard monomers such as methyl methacrylate\n(MMA) and <i>n</i>-butyl acrylate, biobased monomers such\nas isobornyl methacrylate (<i>i</i>BoMA) and tetrahydrofurfuryl\nacrylate were used. High molar masses (>100 kg mol<sup>–1</sup>) with low dispersities (<1.10) were achieved, and variation of\nthe hard block composition between MMA and <i>i</i>BoMA\nallowed to tune the service temperature between 120 and 180 °C.\nThe obtained materials have been shown to exhibit invariant storage\nmodulus (<i>G</i>′) in the MPa range after 5 cycles\nof recycling at 180 °C for 30 min