Precise Synthesis of Acrylate Copolymer via RAFT Polymerization and Its Application

Lei Li,Zuguang Li,Jinxing Song,Shengpeng Wang,Aiyuan You,Xin Yang,Yingying Chen

doi:10.4236/msce.2021.96005

Abstract

A series of different sequence structure containing stearyl acrylate (SA) and hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) copolymer were synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. The crystallization property of PHEA-b-PSA, PHEA-b-PSA-b-PHEA, PSA-b-PHEA-b-PSA, PHEA-co-PSA, and PHEA-grad-b-PSA were characterized by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The condensed structure of different sequence copolymers were investigated using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). A series of copolymers with different sequence structure were coated on the surface of polyester fabric, which can be found that PHEA-b-PSA-b-PHEA block copolymer has good water repellency.

Highlights

Natural polymers form a great variety of self-assembled structures that are essential to their function
A series of copolymers with different sequence structure were coated on the surface of polyester fabric, which can be found that PHEA-b-PSA-b-PHEA block copolymer has good water repellency
Copolymers were characterized by Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR), which can demonstrate the characteristic peaks of the targeted copolymers, 3300 cm−1, 2800 cm−1, and 1750 cm−1 are the stretching vibration peaks of -OH, -CH, and -C=O in PHEA-b-PSA, PHEAb-PSA-b-PHEA, PSA-b-PHEA-b-PSA, P(HEA-co-stearyl acrylate (SA)), and P (HEA-grad-SA) copolymers

Summary

Introduction

Natural polymers form a great variety of self-assembled structures that are essential to their function. Extensive theoretical and experimental investigations have suggested that, beside the overall copolymer composition, the distribution of monomer units along polymer chains can be an important microstructural parameter for fine-tuning nano-morphologies, and the physical and functional properties of polymeric materials [1] [2]. Block copolymer and gradient copolymer were difficult to synthesize using traditional radical polymerization. RAFT polymerization enables the controlled polymerization of a wide range of functional monomers to form well-defined copolymers [4]. We prepared random copolymer, block copolymer, and gradient copolymers with different sequence structure containing SA and HEA monomers using RAFT polymerization, as shown in Scheme 1 and Scheme 2. The water repellency of targeted copolymers were measured, which can be used to explain the internal relationship between structure and property and provide theoretical basis for practical production and application.

Materials

Characterizations

Synthesis of PHEA-b-PSA Block Copolymer

Results and Discussion

Conclusion