Coupling reactions between polystyrene containing acyl chloride endgroups and poly(vinyl acetate) containing amino groups at the chain end or along the chain

Abstract

AbstractPolystyrene (PS) and Poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc), both carrying one terminal acyl chloride group, were synthesized by radiation‐polymerization in the presence of trichloroacetyl chloride, a chain transfer agent, and the acyl chloride groups of PVAc were converted to amino groups by reacting with excess ethylenediamine. Partial acetalization of poly(vinyl alcohol) with aminoacetaldehyde followed by acetalation of the remaining hydroxyl groups in the polymer yielded PVAc having a number of pendant amino groups distributed along the main chain. Condensation coupling reactions between the acyl chloride and amino groups were carried out in chloroform at room temperature to yield PS‐PVAc diblock copolymers and PVAc‐PS graft copolymers with many branches of PS. The pure copolymers were isolated from the reaction products by extraction and then characterized by determining chemical compositions and number‐average molecular weights.