Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol.42, No.12, 2904-2910, 2004
Synthesis of graft copolymer from copolymerization of styrene-terminated poly(ethylene oxide) macromonomer and styrene with CpTiCl3/methylaluminoxane catalyst
Copolymerization of styrene (St) and St-terminated poly(ethylene oxide) macromonomer (SEOM) with CpTiCl3/methylaluminoxane (MAO) catalyst in toluene was investigated. The copolymerization of St and SEOM proceeded easily to give a graft copolymer consisting of syndiotactic polystyrene as the main chain and hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) as the side chain. A number of side chains in the graft copolymer could be controlled by the amount of SEOM in the feed. The reactivity of SEOM was determined from copolymerization of St and SEOM with the CpTiCl3/MAO catalyst, and the reactivity of SEOM depended on the molecular weight of SEOM. The thermal properties of the graft copolymer such as the melting temperature were influenced by the introduction of SEOM. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords:graft copolymerization;macromonomer;styrene;poly(ethylene oxide);half-titanocene;syndiotactic polymer