The homo and copolymerisation of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate in supercritical carbon dioxide

This paper describes the free radical dispersion homopolymerisation of 2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate (DMA) and copolymerisation of DMA with methyl methacrylate (MMA) in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO(2)). The polymerisations are performed in the presence of two commercially available stabilisers, poly(dimethylsiloxane) monomethacrylate macromonomer (PDMS-mma) and the carboxylic acid terminated perfluoropolyether (Krytox 157FSL). Dry, fine powdered polymer product was produced for the copolymer under optimised conditions, but only aggregated solid is formed for homo, poly(DMA). The effect of reaction time, stabiliser, copolymer composition and reaction pressure on the yield, molecular weight and morphology of the copolymers has been investigated. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.