Polymer Bulletin, Vol.60, No.4, 477-486, 2008
Studies on the synthesis and the reaction mechanism of epoxy-terminated polystyrene oligomer
The living poly(styryl)lithium was prepared by anionic polymerization with the protection of argon under normal pressure, where styrene, cyclohexane, THF and n-butyllithium were used as monomer, solvent, polar reagent and initiator, respectively. Epoxy-terminated polystyrene oligomers with narrow molecular weight distribution were synthesized by the copolymerization of the end groups of poly(styryl)lithium with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) at a moderate temperature. The oligomers were characterized using GPC, FT-IR,H-1-NMR, C-13-NMR and Hydrochloric acid-Dioxane Argentimetric method. The effects of GMA dosage, copolymerization duration and temperature on the content of epoxy end group were also studied. The results indicated that the double bond of GMA could polymerize with poly(styryl) carbanion and the content of epoxy end group could be adjusted. It was found that the optimal conditions for the copolymerization were reaction temperature at 10 degrees C and 2 h for copolymerization duration.