Modification of chitosan with polystyrene and poly(n-butyl acrylate) via nitroxide-mediated polymerization and grafting from approach in homogeneous media
Abstract
Chitosan (CTS) modification with polystyrene (PS) and poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PnBA) via nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) and a grafting from approach is reported. CTS was first functionalized with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and then converted into a macroalkoxyamine by intermolecular 1,2 radical addition of either 2,2,5-trimethyl-3-(1-phenylethoxy)-4-phenyl-3-azahexane (TIPNO-based alkoxyamine the “Universal Alkoxyamine”, UA) or the SG1-based BlocBuilder (BB) alkoxyamine. Graft polymerizations of styrene and n-butyl acrylate were conducted, using homogeneous media to ensure uniform grafting onto the CTS backbone. The graft modified CTS based materials were analysed by 1H-NMR, TGA and FT-IR.