Synthesis of N-benzyl-2-(dodecylthio)-N-(2-(dodecylthio)ethyl)ethanamine: new ligand for block copolymerization of styrene and methyl methacrylate using ATRP

• Published in: Journal of polymer research Vol. 27; no. 1
• Main Authors: Hajifatheali, Hassan, Ahmadi, Ebrahim, Marefat, Mohamadreza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Block copolymers; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical industry; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Contact angle; Copolymerization; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Ligands; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Original Paper; Polymer Sciences; Polymethyl methacrylate; Polystyrene resins; Styrenes; N-benzyl-2-(dodecylthio)-N-(2-(dodecylthio)ethyl)ethanamine (SNS); Halogen exchange; Ligand; Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP); Block copolymer; Catalyst
• ISSN: 1022-9760; 1572-8935
• DOI: 10.1007/s10965-019-1960-9

In this study polystyrene and polystyrene-block-poly (methyl methacrylate-co-styrene) were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method using a new synthesized ligand, N-benzyl-2-(dodecylthio)-N-(2-(dodecylthio)ethyl)ethanamine (SNS), which is tridentate ligand with mixed donor atoms. To overcome the poor initiation efficiency of polystyrene during chain extension with methyl methacrylate, use was made of halogen exchange and a small amount (10%) of styrene in the second block of the copolymer. The use of the aforementioned yielded well-defined polymers with controlled high molecular weights and narrow molecular weight distributions ( M n  = 52,200, PDI = 1.45). The synthesized polymers were carefully characterized via FT-IR, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, and GPC techniques. Finally, the synthesized polystyrene and block copolymer were compared in terms of water contact angle.