The
birefringence of optical polymers is a great issue in optical
devices, inhibiting major applications of polymers to optical lenses
and films. In this study, we have synthesized effective bottlebrush
polymers with which we could attain almost zero birefringence when
mixed with optical poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). In detail, the
PMMA bottlebrush polymers (PMMA-BBP) were synthesized by the ring-opening
metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of norbornene-terminated PMMA macromonomers
prepared via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Linear PMMA
and PMMA-BBP were mixed to fabricate blend-film samples (PMMA/PMMA-BBP),
which were uniaxially drawn to introduce molecular orientations. Linear
PMMA possessed a negative value for its orientation birefringence,
while the value of PMMA/PMMA-BBP increased as the PMMA-BBP content
increased, whose orientation birefringence could reach almost zero
when the ratio of the linear PMMA to PMMA-BBP became 73:27, regardless
of the magnitude of the strain. The results reveal that the orientation
birefringence of PMMA can be effectively controlled and removed by
blending the appropriate content of PMMA-BBP.
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