Synthesis of diblock and triblock copolymers from butyl acrylate and styrene by reverse iodine transfer polymerization

• Published in: Journal of applied polymer science Vol. 119; no. 4; pp. 2476 - 2484
• Main Authors: Enríquez-Medrano, Francisco J., Guerrero-Santos, Ramiro, Hernández-Valdez, Martín, Lacroix-Desmazes, Patrick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 15.02.2011; Wiley; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Acrylates; Applied sciences; Block copolymers; Blocking; Chemical Sciences; Copolymers; Exact sciences and technology; Iodine; Materials science; Organic polymers; Physicochemistry of polymers; poly(butyl acrylate); Polymerization; Polymers; polystyrene; Polystyrene resins; Preparation, kinetics, thermodynamics, mechanism and catalysts; radical polymerization; reverse iodine transfer polymerization (RITP); Synthesis; block copolymers; polystyrene; Experimental study; Butyl acrylate copolymer; radical polymerization; Triblock copolymer; Free radical polymerization; Chain transfer; reverse iodine transfer polymerization (RITP); Morphology; Preparation; Diblock copolymer; Reaction mechanism; poly(butyl acrylate); Iodine; Styrene copolymer
• ISSN: 0021-8995; 1097-4628; 1097-4628
• DOI: 10.1002/app.32759

Well‐defined AB and BA diblock copolymers were obtained by a one‐pot two‐step sequential block copolymerization by reverse iodine transfer polymerization (RITP), A being a poly(styrene) block and B a poly(butyl acrylate) block. High monomer conversions during the formation of the first block avoided the purification steps before growing the second block. In a third sequential step, the diblock copolymers were further extended to synthesize ABA and BAB triblock copolymers. Furthermore, the synthesis of ABA and BAB copolymers in only two steps by RITP was investigated starting with the formation of the central block using 2,5‐di(2‐ethylhexanoylperoxy)‐2,5‐dimethylhexane as a difunctional initiator and then resuming the polymerization to grow the external blocks in a second step. The obtained copolymers were analyzed by size exclusion chromatography, transmission electron microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011