Novel Amphiphilic Network Polymers Consisting of Polar, Short Primary Polymer Chains and Nonpolar, Long Cross-link Units Obtained by Free-Radical Cross-linking Monomethacrylate/Dimethacrylate Copolymerizations

Abstract

Solution copolymerizations of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), a polar monomer having a hydroxyl group, with 5 mol % (corresponding to 35.7 wt %) heneicosapropylene glycol dimethacrylate (PPGDMA-21), a nonpolar monomer having a poly(oxypropylene) unit, were carried out in MeOH at a dilution of 2/3 in the presence of different amounts of lauryl mercaptan as a chain transfer agent, providing novel amphiphilic vinyl-type network polymers consisting of polar, short primary polymer chains and nonpolar, long cross-link units. The vinyl-type network polymers formed via highly branched prepolymers have abundant dangling chains as their characteristic feature, especially when the primary polymer chain length is short, because both terminal parts of primary polymer chain would be dangling chains. The amphiphilicity of the resulting gels was checked by measuring their swelling ratios in the mixed solvents consisting of nonpolar tert-butylbenzene (t-BB) and polar MeOH; thus, with an increase in the MeOH volume percent, the gels shrank to the smallest swelling ratio at the start point (i.e., in pure t-BB), swelled gradually and then rather sharply beyond 20 vol %, reached the maximum swelling at about 70 vol %, and then shrank gradually up to a rather high swelling ratio at the terminal (i.e., in pure MeOH). The profiles of the solvent component dependencies of the swelling ratios are characteristic of novel amphiphilic gels. The conversion dependency of the characteristic swelling behavior suggests that the response of the gel obtained at an earlier stage of gelation was sharper than that of the gel obtained at a late stage of gelation. The influence of H2O on the characteristic swelling behavior of resulting amphiphilic gels was examined by measuring their swelling ratios in the mixed solvents consisting of MeOH/H2O or acetone/H2O in order to collect information about the role of cross-link units on the swelling behavior of amphiphilic gel.