Well-defined poly(methyl methacrylate) grafted to isotactic polypropylene by metal-catalyzed living radical polymerization

Abstract

Isotactic polypropylene-based polymer hybrids linking poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was successfully synthesized by a graft copolymerization from maleic anhydride-modified polypropylene (PP; PP-MAH). PP-MAH reacted with ethanolamine to produce a hydroxyl group containing PP (PP-OH), and thus, the obtained PP-OH was treated with α-phenyl chloroacetyl chloride and converted to a chloroacetyl group containing PP. The metal-catalyzed radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate with PP-Cl was performed using a copper catalyst system in o-xylene solution at 100°C to give the PP-based polymer hybrids linking PMMA segments (PP-PMMA hybrids). Thus, obtained PP-PMMA hybrids demonstrated higher melting temperature than PP-Cl and microphase-separation morphology at the nanometer level owing to the chemical linkage between both the segments. The prepared graft copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. Glass transition temperature of grafted copolymer was investigated using thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetric techniques.