Copolymers of 1,3-butadiene and p-methylstyrene （p-MS） were synthesized via anionic polymerization. A benzophenone-potassium complex was added to tune the reactivity ratio of the two monomers, leading to random and gradient composition alonglthe copolymer chain. The overall composition and microstructure could be controlled and well characterized by GPC and H-NMR. The p-MS was distributed from gradient to random with increasing the content of the benzophenone-potassium complex, and the 1,2-microstrucmre in the polybutadiene sequence increased at the same time. The hydrogenation of the copolymer of 1,3-butadiene and p-MS resulted in the corresponding saturated copolymer with well- defined structure and narrow molecular weight distribution.
Comb-like polyethylene（PE） was prepared via anionic polymerization combined with ＂graft-onto＂ process. The polybutadiene（PB） backbone underwent hydroxylation at 1,2-vinyl groups to obtain a controlled number of hydroxyl groups along the main chain. After the translation of hydroxyl groups to tosyl groups, a nucleophilic substitution by living anionic PB chains was achieved. The comb PE was finally obtained by the hydrogenation of the obtained unsaturated comb polymer. Since the living anionic polymerization was used to prepare the backbones and the branch chains, molecular weight to molecular weight distribution（Mw/Mn〈1.5） can be well-controlled in the final comb polymer, including the average number and length of branches.
