Amphiphilic block copolymers obtained by simultaneous RAFT & ROP polymerizations

A.G.O. DE FREITAS; P.I.R. MURARO; T. BORTOLOTTO; S.G. TRINDADE; V. SCHMIDT; L.Q.S. LOPES; M.D. NINAGO; A.J. SATTI; A.E. CIOLINO; M.A. VILLAR; C. GIACOMELLI

Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires

Simposio; XVI Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros, SLAP18 y XIV Congreso Iberoamericano de Polímeros, CIP18; 2018

INTEMA (UNS-CONICET)

A completely metal free route to obtain poly(acrylic acid-b-e-caprolactone) copolymers P(AA-b-CL) by an one-pot method through simultaneous Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain Transfer (RAFT) and Ring Opening Polymerization (ROP) process is reported1. The strategy employs a dual initiator that acts as chain transfer agent (CTA) in the acrylic acid (AA) RAFT polymerization process, and as co-initiator of e-caprolactone (e-CL) ring-opening polymerization (ROP).ε-CL (Aldrich, 99%), diphenyl phosphate (DPP, Aldrich, 99%), 1,1′-azobis(cyclohexanecarbonitrile) (VAZO radical initiator 88, Aldrich 98%), acrylic acid (AA, Aldrich 99%), 1,4-dioxane (Aldrich, 99.8%) and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF, Aldrich 99.8%) were of the highest purity available, and used without any further purification. (Benzylsulfanylthiocarbonylsulfanyl) etha-nol (BSTSE, CTA agent) was prepared following a one-pot procedure described in a previous work.Well-defined P(AA-b-CL) copolymers were obtained by combining simultaneous RAFT & ROP in a one-pot, metal free procedure. The method provides good conversions and homogeneous macromolecular structures.