Novel regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene)-based polycationic block copolymers

Regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) has been successfully incorporated into various poly(N,N-dimethylamino-2-ethyl methacrylate)-based block copolymers, i.e., P3HT-b-PDMAEMA, via Grignard metathesis (GRIM) method and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) reactions. The structure of the diblock copolymers was fully confirmed by FT-IR, H-1 NMR spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis). The recovered copolymers could be treated by protonation of the pending tertiary amine functions and depending on the relative content in PDMAEMA, the copolymers could be solubilized in more polar solvents where P3HT alone proved to be totally insoluble.