Well-Defined Fullerene-Containing Homopolymers and Diblock Copolymers with High Fullerene Content and Their Use for Solution-Phase and Bulk Organization

A fullerene-containing norbornene derivative is used for ring-opening metathesis polymerization to synthesize living polymers with high fullerene content. Incorporation of fullerene at every repeat of a small monomer allows high fullerene content and short inter-fullerene distances in a soluble polymer. The living nature of the polymerization also allows the synthesis of diblock copolymers, which exhibit micellar aggregation in solution and phase separation with interpenetrating C60-domains in a thin film upon TEM imaging.