Synthesis of amphiphilic copolymer brushes:: Poly(ethylene oxide)-graft-polystyrene

A well-defined amphiphilic copolymer brush with poly(ethylene oxide) as the main chain and polystyrene as the side chain was successfully prepared by a combination of anionic polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The glycidol was first protected by ethyl vinyl ether to form 2,3-epoxypropyl-1-ethoxyethyl ether and then copolymerized with ethylene oxide by the initiation of a mixture of diphenylmethylpotassium and triethylene glycol to give the well-defined polymer poly(ethylene oxide-co-2,3-epoxypropyl-1-ethoxyethyl ether); the latter was hydrolyzed under acidic conditions, and then the recovered copolymer of ethylene oxide and glycidol {poly(ethylene oxide-co-glycidol) [poly(EO-co-Gly)]} with multiple pending hydroxymethyl groups was esterified with 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide to produce the macro-ATRP initiator [poly(EO-co-Gly)((ATRP)). The latter was used to initiate the polymerization of styrene to form the amphiphilic copolymer brushes. The object products and intermediates were characterized with H-1 NMR, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared, and size exclusion chromatography in detail. In all cases, the molecular weight distribution of the copolymer brushes was rather narrow (weight-average molecular weight/number-average molecular weight < 1.2), and the linear dependence of ln[M-0]/[M] (where [M-0] is the initial monomer concentration and [M] is the monomer concentration at a certain time) on time demonstrated that the styrene polymerization was well controlled. This method has universal significance for the preparation of copolymer brushes with hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) as the main chain. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.