Synthesis of Poly(glycidyl methacrylate)-block-Poly(pentafluorostyrene) by RAFT: Precursor to Novel Amphiphilic Poly(glyceryl methacrylate)-block-Poly(pentafluorostyrene)

✍ Scribed by Chakravarthy S. Gudipati; Maureen B. H. Tan; Hazrat Hussain; Ye Liu; Chaobin He; Thomas P. Davis

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 274 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1336
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.200800515

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) was synthesized by the RAFT method in the presence of 2‐cyanoprop‐2‐yl dithiobenzoate (CPDB) chain transfer agent using different [GMA]/[CPDB] molar ratios. The living radical polymerization resulted in controlled molecular weights and narrow polydispersity indices (PDI) of ≈1.1. The polymerization of pentafluorostyrene (PFS) with PGMA as the macro‐RAFT agent yielded narrow __PDI__s of ≤1.2 at 60 °C and ≤1.5 at 80 °C. The epoxy groups of the PGMA block were hydrolyzed to obtain novel amphiphilic copolymer, poly(glyceryl methacrylate)‐block‐poly(pentafluorostyrene) [PGMA(OH)‐b‐PPFS]. The PGMA epoxy group hydrolysis was confirmed by ^1^H NMR and FTIR spectroscopy. DSC investigation revealed that the PGMA‐b‐PPFS polymer was amorphous while the PGMA(OH)‐b‐PPFS displayed a high degree of crystallinity.

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