Effect of fullerene C60 branching center on the conformational properties of arms and the structure of star-shaped polystyrenes in solutions

The effect of the fullerene C60 branching center on the structure and conformation of star-shaped polystyrenes with different arm lengths at equal concentrations in deuterotoluene (c = 1 g/dL) is studied by the method of small-angle neutron scattering. The analysis of neutron scattering for linear PS precursors and stars (the molecular masses of arms are ∼7 × 103 and ∼4 × 104) shows that the stars have ∼6 arms that form a dense excluded-volume zone around a core inaccessible to other macromolecules. In low-molecular-mass stars (the molecular mass of the arm is ∼7 × 103), strengthening of the static rigidity of arms is observed; as a result, the size of arms increases relative to the size of free PS chains in a good solvent. At a greater length of arms (M ∼ 4 × 104), their individual properties are weakly pronounced in the correlation spectrum of the arm because of the interpenetration of arms, thereby demonstrating similarity in the structures of stars and their linear analogs. The mechanism controlling the effect of fullerene C60 on the conformations of stars via solvent structuring by fullerene is discussed.