Toward Polyethylene–Polyester Block and Graft Copolymers with Tunable Polarity

Abstract

The synthesis and characterization of polyethylene–polyester block and graft copolymers and their potential as compatibilizers in polyethylene-based polymer blends are being described. The various routes to functionalized polyethylenes and the corresponding block/graft copolymers have been compared and evaluated for their scalability to industrial scale production. Hydroxyl chain-end and randomly OH-functionalized HDPE as well as randomly OH-functionalized LLDPE were employed as macroinitiators for producing the corresponding block and graft copolymers. These materials were prepared using two different strategies. The grafting from approach entails catalytic ring-opening polymerization of lactones, i.e., e-caprolactone and ω-pentadecalactone and hydroxyl-functionalized polyethylenes as macroinitiator. The alternative grafting onto approach involves the preparation of block and graft copolymers via simple and convenient transesterification of polycaprolactone or polypentadecalactone with OH-functionalized ...