Synthesis and MALDI-TOF-MS of PS-PMA and PMA-PS block copolymers

The synthesis of well-defined block copolymers from styrene and methyl acrylate via ATRP is discussed in this contribution. Kinetic studies on these block copolymerizations as well as characterization studies were performed to investigate the monomer composition in the respective PS and PMA blocks. MALDI-TOF-MS was performed to clarify the exact number of repeating units of each block and the total number of units in the block copolymer. Block copolymers up to 22 kDa could be analyzed by MALDI-TOF-MS, whereby polymers with PMA as first block showed a large second distribution corresponding to PMA homopolymers. However, SEC demonstrated that only a small amount of homopolymer was present indicating that care needs to be taken with interpreting MALDI-TOF-MS data, which is a qualitative rather than a quantitative technique. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.