Polymer structure modification radical polymerization

Hawker et al. 2001 Hawker and Wooley 2005). Recent developments in living radical polymerization allow the preparation of structurally well-defined block copolymers with low polydispersity. These polymerization methods include atom transfer free radical polymerization (Coessens et al. 2001), nitroxide-mediated polymerization (Hawker et al. 2001), and reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (Chiefari et al. 1998). In addition to their ease of use, these approaches are generally more tolerant of various functionalities than anionic polymerization. However, direct polymerization of functional monomers is still problematic because of changes in the polymerization parameters upon monomer modification. As an alternative, functionalities can be incorporated into well-defined polymer backbones after polymerization by coupling a side chain modifier with tethered reactive sites (Shenhar et al. 2004 Carroll et al. 2005 Malkoch et al. 2005). The modification step requires a clean (i.e., free from side products) and quantitative reaction so that each site has the desired chemical structures. Otherwise it affords poor reproducibility of performance between different batches. 

Introduction of these photocrosslinkable structures in macro-molecular chains can be performed by esterification of hydroxyla-ted polymers with cinnamoyl chloride. Cellulose Q).condensation products (4, ) and mainly poly(vinyl alcohol) have Been treated( by this method. Other chemical modifications have been studied as ester interchange of poly(vinyl acetate) 7) and Knoevenagel reaction on polyesters (8). Very few results on the synthesis of such photocrosslinkable polymers by polymerization have been reported. Therefore free radical polymerization of cinnamic acid vinyl derivatives did not lead to the expected polymers, but to insolubilization reactions. Howewer cationic procedure can be a good way in some cases since Kato et al. could polymerize by this way with high yields p-vinyl phenylcinnamate (9) and B-vinyloxyethyl cinnamate (10). 

The same is true for other polymer modification reactions with acrylamide derivatives especially cationic structures for the formation of cationic surface layers. Furthermore acrylamide derivates like methylenediacrylamide are used in various polymerisation reactions and have to be determined in polymer solutions. The polycations formed by a radical polymerization and their reaction products with polyanions (symplexes) have to be characterized when they are used in polymer modification or other fields. 

Recently, surface modification techniques for polymer chains have progressed a great deal with the development of a new polymer synthesis method. In particular, surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) is one of the most effective modification methods for preparing a well-defined dense polymer brush structure, or polymer brush, on solid substrates. Thus, a self-oscillating polymer brush prepared by SI-ATRP can be expected to create a novel self-oscillating surface with autonomous function, which will lead to potential applications in transporting systems for nanomaterials of flow control in microfluidics. 

Hybrid (or composite) latexes (169) are essentially a combination of the artificial latex and emulsion polymerisation methods (68, 167). A water-insoluble species (such as polymer) may be dissolved in monomer and dispersed in water in the same marmer as the artificial latexes. However, rather than removing the monomeric solvent, it is polymerised in the droplets by the addition of initiator. The monomer-swollen polymer particles capture radicals and polymerise to form a polymeric blend or structured domains. In this maimer, polystyrene particles with styrene-butadiene mbber (SBR) inclusions have been prepared for impact modification applications. 

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