Synthesis and characterization of poly(vinyl chloride-g-methyl methacrylate) graft copolymer by redox polymerization and Cu catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction

Abstract

The synthesis of poly(vinyl chloride-g-methyl methacrylate) graft copolymer was carried out by use of a Cu catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction to graft terminally propargyl polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA-propargyl) to polyvinyl chloride azido (PVC-N3). For this purpose, PMMA-propargyl was obtained by reaction of methyl methacrylate and propargyl alcohol by redox polymerization. PVC-N3 was synthesized by using polyvinyl chloride and sodium azide. By using PVC-N3 and PMMA-propargyl, the graft copolymer was obtained. Characterizations of the modified homopolymers and the graft copolymer were performed by using FT-IR, 1H-NMR, SEM, TGA and GPC analyses. It has been monitored that both group modifications and coupling reaction have been successfully performed with spectroscopic and thermal analysis methods.