Design and Synthesis of Multigraft Copolymer Thermoplastic Elastomers: Superelastomers

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) have been widely studied because of their recyclability, good processibility, low production cost, and unique performance. The building of graft-type architectures can greatly improve mechanical properties of TPEs. This review focuses on the advances in different approaches to synthesize multigraft copolymer TPEs. Anionic polymerization techniques allow for the synthesis of well-defined macromolecular structures and compositions, with great control over the molecular weight, polydispersity, branch spacing, number of branch points, and branch point functionality. Progress in emulsion polymerization offers potential approaches to commercialize these types of materials with low production cost via simple operations. Moreover, the use of multigraft architectures provides a solution to the limited elongational properties of all-acrylic TPEs, which can greatly expand their potential application range. The combination of different polymerization techniques, the introduction of new chemical compositions, and the incorporation of sustainable sources are expected to be further investigated in this area in coming years.