The present invention provides a new star-shaped block copolymer and a
production process therefor, wherein the new star-shaped block copolymer
has high heat resistance despite having a low viscosity. It has been found
that a new star-shaped block copolymer has high heat resistance wherein
the new star-shaped block copolymer comprises a plurality of star-shaped
structures 1 in which at least three chain polymer segments 2 are radially
extended from a central polyvalent mercaptan segment 3, wherein the
star-shaped structures 1 are bonded to each other through a bonding
structure 4 at their chain polymer segments. In addition, in a production
process for a star-shaped block copolymer comprising the multistep radical
polymerization in the presence of a polyvalent mercaptan wherein the
elementary steps of the multistep radical polymerization differ in
polymerizable monomers as used therein, the improvement according to the
present invention is characterized in that at least one of the elementary
steps of the multistep radical polymerization involves the joint use of a
polyfunctional monomer with the polymerizable monomer.