Effect of monomer hydrophilicity on ARGET–ATRP kinetics in aqueous mini‐emulsion polymerization
Abstract
Activators regenerated by electron transfer (ARGET) atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP)‐based aqueous miniemulsion polymerization where the polymerization takes place in the stabilized monomer droplets is described. In this work, we compared styrene, n‐butyl methacrylate (nBMA) and tert‐butyl methacrylate (tBMA) and investigated the influence of their hydrophobicity on dispersity, molecular weight and particle stability based their partition coefficients (logP) (2.67, 2.23, and 1.86, respectively). Tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) was used as a phase transfer agent for the controlled delivery of Cu2+‐Br/tris(2‐pyridylmethyl)amine (TPMA), a hydrophilic catalyst, into monomer droplets of varying hydrophobicity. The resulting dispersity and particle stability of each polymer is a function of its logP value, with the most hydrophobic monomer (styrene) displaying the narrowest dispersity and most control (Đ tBMA) having reduced emulsion stability, determined by the observation of aggregate formation. Selected polymerization parameters, including effects of total ascorbic acid feed concentration and the monomer concentration and their effects on dispersity are reported. The controlled polymerizations of hydrophilic monomers using ARGET‐ATRP in miniemulsion conditions and understanding the effect of monomer hydrophilicity on the emulsion stability will broaden the use of ARGET‐ATRP in emulsion polymerization for the synthesis of polymer‐grafted nanoparticles with hydrophilic corona.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 29, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1002/pol.20210658
Entities
People
- Alicia Cintora
- Chenyun Yuan
- Christopher Ober
- Florian Käfer
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- Cornell University
- National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka