Abstract
Despite the commercial importance of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MAH), it has long been a scientific challenge to prepare this polymer with a well-controlled molecular structure. This paper discusses a new chemical route that can form PP-g-MAH with desirable MAH content, a single MAH incorporated unit, white color, high molecular weight, and narrow molecular weight and composition distributions. The chemistry involves a unique PP-co-p-BT copolymer as the "reactive intermediate" that can be effectively prepared by metallocene-mediated copolymerization of propylene and p-(3-butenyl)toluene (p-BT), with narrow molecular weight and composition distributions, high molecular weight, and a broad range of p-BT contents. The incorporated p-BT comonomer units provide the reactive sites for the subsequent free radical MAH graft reaction under a suspension condition at a low reaction temperature. The resulting PP-g-MAH polymers were carefully examined by a combination of NMR and GPC measurements, which shows almost no change in polymer molecular weight and distribution and a single MAH incorporation (no oligomerization). The incorporated MAH units increase with the increase of initiator concentration, p-BT content, and reaction time. Evidently, the combination of high reactivity of φ-CH 3 moiety, a favorable mixing condition between the reactive sites and chemical reagents in the swollen amorphous phases, and low reaction temperature results in MAH grafting reaction selectively taking place at the φ-CH 3 moieties without side reactions (i.e., chain degradation and MAH oligomerization). In addition, this suspension reaction process presents an economic method to prepare PP-g-MAH with high polymer content and easy product purification.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4313-4323 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Macromolecules |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 11 2013 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Organic Chemistry
- Polymers and Plastics
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Materials Chemistry
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Synthesis and characterization of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene with a well-defined molecular structure. / Zhang, Min; Colby, Ralph H.; Milner, Scott Thomas; Chung, Tze-chiang; Huang, Tianzi; Degroot, Willem.
In: Macromolecules, Vol. 46, No. 11, 11.06.2013, p. 4313-4323.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Synthesis and characterization of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene with a well-defined molecular structure
AU - Zhang, Min
AU - Colby, Ralph H.
AU - Milner, Scott Thomas
AU - Chung, Tze-chiang
AU - Huang, Tianzi
AU - Degroot, Willem
PY - 2013/6/11
Y1 - 2013/6/11
N2 - Despite the commercial importance of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MAH), it has long been a scientific challenge to prepare this polymer with a well-controlled molecular structure. This paper discusses a new chemical route that can form PP-g-MAH with desirable MAH content, a single MAH incorporated unit, white color, high molecular weight, and narrow molecular weight and composition distributions. The chemistry involves a unique PP-co-p-BT copolymer as the "reactive intermediate" that can be effectively prepared by metallocene-mediated copolymerization of propylene and p-(3-butenyl)toluene (p-BT), with narrow molecular weight and composition distributions, high molecular weight, and a broad range of p-BT contents. The incorporated p-BT comonomer units provide the reactive sites for the subsequent free radical MAH graft reaction under a suspension condition at a low reaction temperature. The resulting PP-g-MAH polymers were carefully examined by a combination of NMR and GPC measurements, which shows almost no change in polymer molecular weight and distribution and a single MAH incorporation (no oligomerization). The incorporated MAH units increase with the increase of initiator concentration, p-BT content, and reaction time. Evidently, the combination of high reactivity of φ-CH 3 moiety, a favorable mixing condition between the reactive sites and chemical reagents in the swollen amorphous phases, and low reaction temperature results in MAH grafting reaction selectively taking place at the φ-CH 3 moieties without side reactions (i.e., chain degradation and MAH oligomerization). In addition, this suspension reaction process presents an economic method to prepare PP-g-MAH with high polymer content and easy product purification.
AB - Despite the commercial importance of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MAH), it has long been a scientific challenge to prepare this polymer with a well-controlled molecular structure. This paper discusses a new chemical route that can form PP-g-MAH with desirable MAH content, a single MAH incorporated unit, white color, high molecular weight, and narrow molecular weight and composition distributions. The chemistry involves a unique PP-co-p-BT copolymer as the "reactive intermediate" that can be effectively prepared by metallocene-mediated copolymerization of propylene and p-(3-butenyl)toluene (p-BT), with narrow molecular weight and composition distributions, high molecular weight, and a broad range of p-BT contents. The incorporated p-BT comonomer units provide the reactive sites for the subsequent free radical MAH graft reaction under a suspension condition at a low reaction temperature. The resulting PP-g-MAH polymers were carefully examined by a combination of NMR and GPC measurements, which shows almost no change in polymer molecular weight and distribution and a single MAH incorporation (no oligomerization). The incorporated MAH units increase with the increase of initiator concentration, p-BT content, and reaction time. Evidently, the combination of high reactivity of φ-CH 3 moiety, a favorable mixing condition between the reactive sites and chemical reagents in the swollen amorphous phases, and low reaction temperature results in MAH grafting reaction selectively taking place at the φ-CH 3 moieties without side reactions (i.e., chain degradation and MAH oligomerization). In addition, this suspension reaction process presents an economic method to prepare PP-g-MAH with high polymer content and easy product purification.
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U2 - 10.1021/ma4006632
DO - 10.1021/ma4006632
M3 - Article
VL - 46
SP - 4313
EP - 4323
JO - Macromolecules
JF - Macromolecules
SN - 0024-9297
IS - 11
ER -