Block polystyrene-polydiene

Legge, N.R., Holden, G. and Schroeder, H.E., Thermoplastic elastomers based on polystyrene-polydiene block copolymers. Thermoplastic Elastomers, Hanser Publishers, New York, 1987. 

MACROMER (10) is a trademark by CPC International of a new family of monomers. Because they are synthesized via anionic chemistry, their molecular weight is controlled by the ratio of monomer to initiator and they also have very narrow molecular weight distributions. The typical polymeric portions of MACROMEHf that have been investigated are polystyrene, polydiene, and blocks of the two (5, lCi). Some of the typical MACROMER functional groups that were examined are shown in Figure 8. These are shown to indicate the wide variety of functional groups that are useful for various polymerization mechanisms (4). 

One of the most important discoveries relating to synthesis and physical behavior was made by Dr. Milkovich while at the Shell Development Co. He and his colleagues showed that triblock copolymers containing polystyrene-polydiene-polystyrene blocks in appropriate sizes could behave as a physically cross-linked but linear thermoplastic elastomer. Thus Dr. Milkovich was involved with two very crucial discoveries in this field. Interestingly, he received his M. S. degree at Syracuse with Professor Szwarc and his Ph.D. at Akron with Professor Morton. I was pleased that Dr. Milkovich accepted my invitation to be a plenary speaker at the symposium, along with Professors Szwarc and Morton. 

Molded foam copolymers with 10-30% glycidyl acrylate may be crosslinked by heating in the presence of polyamines. Heat resistance may be increased to as high as 150°C. by this treatment (25). Use of certain allyl or diallyl esters to control the crosslinking of polystyrene to the desired very light extent has been disclosed as a means of obtaining foams of improved and regular cell structure (135). Block copolymers of polystyrene, polydiene (particularly polyisoprene), and polystyrene... 

Recent theories (4,5) indicate that a sharp boundary does not exist in polystyrene-polydiene block copolymers, but rather, partial mixing exists in the interfacial region between the two thermodynamically incompatible phases. The thickness of the interface is temperature dependent. With increasing temperature, intermixing of the two phases increases at the expense of the pure phases, but the copolymers remain phase segregated. Indeed, structural changes continue to exist well into the melt, but the two phase structure of styrene-butadiene block copolymers... 

A characteristic feature is that the same type of carbonyl complexes bound with aUyl fragments in the polymer chains were detected on immobilization of Co2(CO)g or Fe3(CO)i2 within polystyrene-polydiene block-copolymers. The thermal decomposition of these Jt-allyl complexes results in nanoparticles. The Cr(CO)3 fragments in polystyrene are bound via Ti -complexed benzene rings. 

Elastomers Based on Polystyrene-Polydiene Block Copolymers, Hanser Publishers, Munich, 1987. 

It was pointed out in Section 2.16.9 that anionic living polymerisation can be used to prepare ABA tri>block copolymers suitable for use as thermoplastic elastomers. In such copolymers the A blocks are normally of a homopolymer which is glassy and the B block is of a rubbery homopolymer (e.g. a polydiene such as polybutadiene or polyisoprene). The characteristic properties of these materials stems from the fact that two polymers which contain repeat units of a different chemical type tend to be incompatible on the molecular level. Thus the block copolymers phase separate into domains which are rich in one or the other type of repeat unit. In the case of the polystyrene-polydiene-polystyrene types of tri-block copolymers used for thermoplastic elastomers (with about 25% by weight polystyrene blocks), the structure is phase-separated at ambient temperature into approximately spherical polystyrene-rich domains which are dispersed in a matrix of the polydiene chains. This type of structure is shown schematically in Fig. 4.36 where it can be seen that the polystyrene blocks are anchored in the spherical domains. At ambient temperature the polystyrene is below its Tg whereas the polydiene is above its Tg. Hence the material consists of a rubbery matrix containing a rigid dispersed phase. 

Fig. 4.36 Schematic representation of the structure of an ABA tri block copolymer of the polystyrene-polydiene-polystyrene type. The thicker lines represent the polystyrene blocks and the thinner lines the polydiene blocks.

Reported studies of domain structures encompass a wide range of copolymer systems. By far the most comprehensive work, however, has been carried out on polystyrene/polydiene block copolymers. 

The use of lightly crosslinked polymers did result in hydrophilic surfaces (contact angle 50°, c-PI, 0.2 M PhTD). However, the surfaces displayed severe cracking after 5 days. Although qualitatively they appeared to remain hydrophilic, reliable contact angle measurements on these surfaces were impossible. Also, the use of a styrene-butadiene-styrene triblock copolymer thermoplastic elastomer did not show improved permanence of the hydrophilicity over other polydienes treated with PhTD. The block copolymer film was cast from toluene, and transmission electron microscopy showed that the continuous phase was the polybutadiene portion of the copolymer. Both polystyrene and polybutadiene domains are present at the surface. This would probably limit the maximum hydrophilicity obtainable since the RTD reagents are not expected to modify the polystyrene domains. 

ABA triblock copolymers of the styrene-diene type are well known, and owe their unique properties to their heterophase morphology. This arises from the incompatibility between the polystyrene A blocks and the polydiene B blocks, leading to the formation of a dispersion of very small polystyrene domains within the polydiene matrix. This type of elastic network, held together by the polystyrene "junctions", results in thermoplastic elastomer properties. 

In addition to the triblock thermoplastic elastomers, other useful copolymers of styrene with a diene are produced commerically by living anionic polymerization. These include di-and multiblock copolymers, random copolymers, and tapered block copolymers. A tapered (gradient) copolymer has a variation in composition along the polymer chain. For example, S-S/D-D is a tapered block polymer that tapers from a polystyrene block to a styrene-diene random copolymer to polydiene block. (Tapered polymers need not have pure blocks at their ends. One can have a continuously tapered composition from styrene to diene by... 

In general, block copolymers are heterogeneous (multiphase) polymer systems, because the different blocks from which they are built are incompatible with each other, as for example, in diene/styrene-block copolymers. This incompatibility, however, does not lead to a complete phase separation because the polystyrene segments can aggregate with each other to form hard domains that hold the polydiene segments together. As a result, block copolymers often combine the properties of the relevant homopolymers. This holds in particular for block copolymers of two monomers A and B. 

The compositional and two-phase morphological relationships of "A-B" blocks, the "A-B-A" and starblocks have been studied intensively. It has been demonstrated that there is a substantial difference between random copolymers and block polymers, and this difference is based solely on the architectural arrangement of the monomeric units. One of the most important differences is that one Tg is observed in the random copolymer, which is related to the overall composition of the polymer. The block polymer has been shown to have two Tg s - one for polystyrene and one for the polydiene segment, and that these Tg s are not affected by the composition of the block copolymer. Since we can now synthesize large quantities of these pure block polymers, more detailed physical studies can be carried out. The two Tg s observed in... 

These results indicate that if polydienes and similar polymers can be prepared quantitatively with tertiary amine terminal groups, then they can be combined with other halogen functional polymers using established techniques to create interesting new block copolymer systems. For example, consider the reaction between telechelic pyridine terminated polybutadiene and monofunctional bromine terminated polystyrene (equation 4) -the latter has been prepared in 95% yield. >it The product would be an ABA... 

The living character of organolithium polymerizations makes such processes ideally suited for the preparation of pure as well as tapered-block copolymers. Diene-olefin pure-block copolymers have become important commodities because of their unique structure-property relationships. When such copolymers have an ABA or (AB) X [A = polyolefin, e.g., polystyrene or poly(a-methylstyrene) B = polydiene, e.g., polybutadiene or polyisoprene and X = coupling-agent residue] arrangement of the blocks, the copolymers have found use as thermoplastic elastomers (i.e., elastomers that can be processed as thermoplastics). 

A variation of the sequential monomer addition technique described in Section 9.2.6(i) is used to make styrene-diene-styrene iriblock thermoplastic rubbers. Styrene is polymerized first, using butyl lithium initiator in a nonpolar solvent. Then, a mixture of styrene and the diene is added to the living polystyryl macroanion. The diene will polymerize first, because styrene anions initiate diene polymerization much faster than the reverse process. After the diene monomer is consumed, polystyrene forms the third block. The combination of Li initiation and a nonpolar solvent produces a high cis-1,4 content in the central polydiene block, as required for thermoplastic elastomer behavior. 

Anionic polymerization frequently has been used to prepare well-defined living polymers such as polystyrene, poly(a-methylstyrene), polydienes, which may be transformed by two methods into block copolymers with cationically polymerizable monomers. When a living anionic polymer is mixed with a stoichiometric amount of a living cationic polymer the cationic and anionic species may couple. For example, anionic living polystyrene (St) or poly (a-methylstyrene) (MSt) were reacted with living cationic polytetrahydrofuran (THF). In the latter system the coupling efficiency was low, probably because of proton or hydride transfer 132) ... 

Block Copolymer Synthesis by Three-Step Sequential Monomer Addition The preparation of block copolymers by sequential addition of monomers using living anionic polymerization and a monofunctional initiator is the most direct method for preparing well-defined block copolymers. Detailed laboratory procedures for anionic synthesis of block copolymers are available [37, 230], Several important aspects of these syntheses can be illustrated by considering the preparation of an important class of block copolymers (Scheme 7.22), the polystyrene-fe-polydiene-( -polystyrene triblock copolymers. 

Commercial poly(butadiene), which is mainly the 1,4 isomer, is also used to improve the impact resistance of polystyrene (Chapter 1). Polydienes also increase the rate of physical disintegration of polyblend containing them. The addition of a styrene-butadiene block copolymer e.g. SBS, page 9 et seq.) to polyethylene also accelerates the peroxidation of the latter. However, this system also requires a polymer-soluble transition metal ion catalyst e.g. an iron or manganese carboxylate) to increase the rate of photooxidation in the environment by the reactions shown in Scheme 5.3. The products formed by breakdown of alkoxyl radicals (PO ) (Scheme 3.4) are then rapidly biodegradable in compost (page 107 et seq.). 

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