Well-defined poly(methyl methacrylate) grafted to isotactic polypropylene by metal-catalyzed living radical polymerization

Isotactic polypropylene-based polymer hybrids linking poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was successfully synthesized by a graft copolymerization from maleic anhydride-modified polypropylene (PP; PP-MAH). PP-MAH reacted with ethanolamine to produce a hydroxyl group containing PP (PP-OH), and thus, the obtained PP-OH was treated with α-phenyl chloroacetyl chloride and converted to a chloroacetyl group containing PP. The metal-catalyzed radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate with PP-Cl was performed using a copper catalyst system in o-xylene solution at 100°C to give the PP-based polymer hybrids linking PMMA segments (PP-PMMA hybrids). Thus, obtained PP-PMMA hybrids demonstrated higher melting temperature than PP-Cl and microphase-separation morphology at the nanometer level owing to the chemical linkage between both the segments. The prepared graft copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. Glass transition temperature of grafted copolymer was investigated using thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetric techniques.