Synthesis and properties of gradient copolymers of butyl methacrylate and fluorinated acrylate via RAFT miniemulsion copolymerizations

Abstract

A series of gradient fluorinated copolymers with a broad variation of the monomer units in the polymer chain were synthesized via semibatch CPDB‐mediated RAFT miniemulsion polymerization technique. In the presence of RAFT agent 2‐cyanoprop‐2‐yl dithiobenzoate (CPDB), the copolymerization of BMA and FMA in miniemulsion exhibited typical features of a controlled molecular weights and narrow polydispersities. The macromolecular structure and thermal behavior of the synthesized fluorinated copolymers were investigated in detail. The DSC analyses show that the gradient copolymers showed a unique thermal behavior with broad range of transition temperature. It was also confirmed that the fluorinated gradient copolymer exhibited obvious surface segregation structure and ultra‐low surface energy between 16.8 and 20.3 mN/m. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 42936.

Research progress on synthetic methods and application performances of polycarboxylic acids with different sequence structures

“…The molecular weight distribution of the polymer is effectively controlled in the specific presence of chain transfer agents or initiators. The difference between gradient polymers is that the monomers are involved in the reaction system in a gradual and regular manner, so that the polymer backbone composition changes gradually from one monomer to another, 16 resulting in a gradient arrangement in the polymer molecules. Since gradient polymers have wider interfacial layers and larger stretching conformations than random and blocked structure polymers, such a special structural composition will also have a certain impact on the performance of the dispersant.…”