Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5184976 | Polymer | 2009 | 9 Pages |
A new titanium alkoxide, Ti[OCH2CCl3]4, designed to combine the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of É-caprolactone and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of n-butyl acrylate, was synthesized through the ester-exchange reaction of titanium n-propoxide and 2,2,2-trichloroethanol. The mechanism and kinetics of Ti[OCH2CCl3]4 initiated bulk polymerization of É-caprolactone were studied. The results demonstrate that the polymerization proceeds through the coordination-insertion mechanism and all the four alkoxide groups in Ti[OCH2CCl3]4 share a similar activity in the initiation. The determined polymerization activation energy is 70Â kJ/mol. The polymerization process can be well predicted by the obtained kinetic parameters. Furthermore, PCL synthesized with Ti[OCH2CCl3]4 can be used as the macroinitiator in ATRP of n-butyl acrylate to synthesize poly(É-caprolactone)-block-poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PCL-b-PBA) copolymer.
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