RAFT Dispersion Polymerization in Nonpolar Media: Polymerization of 3-Phenylpropyl Methacrylate in n-Tetradecane with Poly(stearyl methacrylate) Homopolymers as Macro Chain Transfer Agents

Poly(stearyl methacrylate) (PSMA) homopolymers, prepared by RAFT radical polymerization, have been employed in the RAFT dispersion polymerization (RAFTDP) of 3-phenylpropyl methacrylate (PPMA) in n-tetradecane. RAFTDPs yielded block copolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions and tunable c...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pei, Y., Thurairajah, L., Sugita, O., Lowe, Andrew
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Chemical Society 2015
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT110100046
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30951
_version_ 1848753238211297280
author Pei, Y.
Thurairajah, L.
Sugita, O.
Lowe, Andrew
author_facet Pei, Y.
Thurairajah, L.
Sugita, O.
Lowe, Andrew
author_sort Pei, Y.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Poly(stearyl methacrylate) (PSMA) homopolymers, prepared by RAFT radical polymerization, have been employed in the RAFT dispersion polymerization (RAFTDP) of 3-phenylpropyl methacrylate (PPMA) in n-tetradecane. RAFTDPs yielded block copolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions and tunable compositions and allowed for ready access to different polymorphic nanoparticle phases. Polymerization of PPMA at 20 wt %, for a fixed PSMA average degree of polymerization (X̅n) of 19, allowed for the in situ preparation of soft matter nano-objects with spherical, worm, and vesicular morphologies. For a fixed block copolymer composition increasing total solids (from 10 to 40 wt %) favored the formation of nanoparticles with higher ordered morphologies. For block copolymer samples that formed soft physical gels at ambient temperature, a macroscopic thermoreversible degelation–gelation phenomenon was observed. The fundamental reason for this was a worm-to-sphere morphology transition that was facilitated, in part, by the low glass transition temperature of the core-forming PPPMA block and an associated increase in the solvation of the core with increasing temperature. Finally, we note that degelation can also be effected by simple dilution with this macroscopic change now due to simple worm disentanglement and not a fundamental morphology transition.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T08:21:20Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-30951
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:21:20Z
publishDate 2015
publisher American Chemical Society
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-309512017-09-13T15:13:58Z RAFT Dispersion Polymerization in Nonpolar Media: Polymerization of 3-Phenylpropyl Methacrylate in n-Tetradecane with Poly(stearyl methacrylate) Homopolymers as Macro Chain Transfer Agents Pei, Y. Thurairajah, L. Sugita, O. Lowe, Andrew Poly(stearyl methacrylate) (PSMA) homopolymers, prepared by RAFT radical polymerization, have been employed in the RAFT dispersion polymerization (RAFTDP) of 3-phenylpropyl methacrylate (PPMA) in n-tetradecane. RAFTDPs yielded block copolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions and tunable compositions and allowed for ready access to different polymorphic nanoparticle phases. Polymerization of PPMA at 20 wt %, for a fixed PSMA average degree of polymerization (X̅n) of 19, allowed for the in situ preparation of soft matter nano-objects with spherical, worm, and vesicular morphologies. For a fixed block copolymer composition increasing total solids (from 10 to 40 wt %) favored the formation of nanoparticles with higher ordered morphologies. For block copolymer samples that formed soft physical gels at ambient temperature, a macroscopic thermoreversible degelation–gelation phenomenon was observed. The fundamental reason for this was a worm-to-sphere morphology transition that was facilitated, in part, by the low glass transition temperature of the core-forming PPPMA block and an associated increase in the solvation of the core with increasing temperature. Finally, we note that degelation can also be effected by simple dilution with this macroscopic change now due to simple worm disentanglement and not a fundamental morphology transition. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30951 10.1021/ma502230h http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT110100046 American Chemical Society restricted
spellingShingle Pei, Y.
Thurairajah, L.
Sugita, O.
Lowe, Andrew
RAFT Dispersion Polymerization in Nonpolar Media: Polymerization of 3-Phenylpropyl Methacrylate in n-Tetradecane with Poly(stearyl methacrylate) Homopolymers as Macro Chain Transfer Agents
title RAFT Dispersion Polymerization in Nonpolar Media: Polymerization of 3-Phenylpropyl Methacrylate in n-Tetradecane with Poly(stearyl methacrylate) Homopolymers as Macro Chain Transfer Agents
title_full RAFT Dispersion Polymerization in Nonpolar Media: Polymerization of 3-Phenylpropyl Methacrylate in n-Tetradecane with Poly(stearyl methacrylate) Homopolymers as Macro Chain Transfer Agents
title_fullStr RAFT Dispersion Polymerization in Nonpolar Media: Polymerization of 3-Phenylpropyl Methacrylate in n-Tetradecane with Poly(stearyl methacrylate) Homopolymers as Macro Chain Transfer Agents
title_full_unstemmed RAFT Dispersion Polymerization in Nonpolar Media: Polymerization of 3-Phenylpropyl Methacrylate in n-Tetradecane with Poly(stearyl methacrylate) Homopolymers as Macro Chain Transfer Agents
title_short RAFT Dispersion Polymerization in Nonpolar Media: Polymerization of 3-Phenylpropyl Methacrylate in n-Tetradecane with Poly(stearyl methacrylate) Homopolymers as Macro Chain Transfer Agents
title_sort raft dispersion polymerization in nonpolar media: polymerization of 3-phenylpropyl methacrylate in n-tetradecane with poly(stearyl methacrylate) homopolymers as macro chain transfer agents
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT110100046
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30951