Preparation and characterization of lignin based macromonomer and its copolymers with butyl methacrylate

Copolymerization of butyl methacrylate (BMA) with biobutanol lignin (BBL) was achieved by free-radical polymerization (FRP) using a lignin-based macromonomer. The lignin-based macromonomer containing acrylic groups was prepared by reacting acryloyl chloride with biobutanol lignin using triethylamine (TEA) as absorb acid agentin. From the results of elemental analysis and GPC, the average degree of polymerization (DP) of BBL was estimated to be five. A detailed molecular characterization has been performed, including techniques such as 1H NMR, 13C NMR and UV-vis spectroscopies, which provided quantitative information about the composition of the copolymers. The changes in the solubility of lignin-g-poly(BMA) copolymers in ethyl ether were dependent on the length of poly(BMA) side chain. TGA analysis indicated that the lignin-containing poly(BMA) graft copolymers exhibited high thermal stability. The bulky aromatic group of lignin increased the glass-transition temperature of poly(BMA). In order to confirm the main structure of copolymer, (AC-g-BBL)-co-BMA copolymer was also synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), and the results revealed that the copolymer prepared by ATRP had the same solution behavior as that prepared by FRP, and the lignin-based macromonomer showed no homopolymerizability due to the steric hindrance. In addition, the lignin-co-BMA copolymer had a surprisingly higher molecular weight than poly(BMA) under the same reaction condition, suggesting that a branched lignin based polymer could be formed.