Issue 29, 2022

One-pot synthesis of structure-controlled temperature-responsive polymer gels

Abstract

The simultaneous use of metal Lewis acids and photo-radical generators for dithioesters, which are the common dormant species for cationic and radical polymerization, made it possible to convert a cationic species into a radical upon photoirradiation. In this study, we attempted one-pot synthesis of temperature-responsive polymer gels with controlled network structure by using temperature-responsive telechelic polymers prepared by cationic polymerization in the dark followed by the mechanistic transformation into radical cross-linking reaction under photoirradiation. Specifically, the polymerization of 2-(2-ethoxy)ethoxyethyl vinyl ether (EO2) in the presence of a crosslinking agent (divinyl adipate) was performed at 4 °C in toluene using a vinyl ether-type bifunctional RAFT reagent as initiator, a Lewis acid (Et3Al2Cl3) and a photo radical generator (TPO). The conditions for gelation by radical polymerization with photoirradiation were investigated in detail by considering the molecular weight control and overlapping concentration of the telechelic polymers obtained by cationic polymerization. As a result, small-angle X-ray scattering revealed that polymer gels with a relatively uniform network structure can be obtained compared to the cross-linked network of polymer gels obtained by conventional free-radical polymerization.

Graphical abstract: One-pot synthesis of structure-controlled temperature-responsive polymer gels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 apr. 2022
Accepted
15 jún. 2022
First published
17 jún. 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Polym. Chem., 2022,13, 4230-4240

One-pot synthesis of structure-controlled temperature-responsive polymer gels

T. Sakai, N. Ito, M. Hara, T. Seki, M. Uchiyama, M. Kamigaito, K. Satoh, T. Hoshino and Y. Takeoka, Polym. Chem., 2022, 13, 4230 DOI: 10.1039/D2PY00554A

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