Silicones have unique properties including thermal oxidative stability low temperature flow
high compressibility low surface tension hydrophobicity and electric properties. These
special properties have encouraged the exploration of alternative synthetic routes of well
defined controlled microstructures of silicone copolymers the subject of this Springer Brief.
The authors explore the synthesis and characterization of notable block copolymers. Recent
advances in controlled radical polymerization techniques leading to the facile synthesis of
well-defined silicon based thermo reversible block copolymers are described along with atom
transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) a technique utilized to develop well-defined functional
thermo reversible block copolymers. The brief also focuses on Polyrotaxanes and their great
potential as stimulus-responsive materials which produce poly (dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) based
thermo reversible block copolymers.
