Issue 28, 2019, Issue in Progress

A controlled synthesis method of alkyl methacrylate block copolymers via living anionic polymerization at ambient temperature

Abstract

A controlled synthesis method of alkyl methacrylate block copolymers such as poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PMMA-b-PEMA), poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(butyl methacrylate) (PMMA-b-PBMA) and poly(ethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(butyl methacrylate) (PEMA-b-PBMA) via living anionic polymerization was innovated with potassium tert-butoxide (t-BuOK) as initiator in tetrahydrofuran(THF) solvent. The sequential anionic copolymerization could be smoothly conducted at 0 °C and the conversion of all monomers reached up to almost 100%. The copolymers were characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). It was found that all block copolymers were in a narrow MWD while Mw and weight ratio of each block were coincided with the theoretical values and feed ratio. DMA measurement indicated that all the block copolymers have two glass transition temperatures which have proved the certain microphase separation and the partial compatibility of the blocks. The similar results were achieved after changing feed order or addition amount. Furthermore, the reactivity ratio was also studied and confirmed that reactivity ratio of MMA was the largest among alkyl methacrylate. Based on these results, the anionic block copolymerization containing polar alkyl methacrylate monomers at a commercial scale starts to become possible.

Graphical abstract: A controlled synthesis method of alkyl methacrylate block copolymers via living anionic polymerization at ambient temperature

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Mar 2019
Accepted
21 Apr 2019
First published
22 May 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 16049-16056

A controlled synthesis method of alkyl methacrylate block copolymers via living anionic polymerization at ambient temperature

Z. Li, J. Chen, G. Zou, T. Zhang, D. Wei, X. Xu, Y. Guan and A. Zheng, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 16049 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA01577A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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