The copolymerization of isopropylidene glyceryl glycidyl (IGG) and ethylene oxide (EO) with
i
-Bu
3
Al/H
3
PO
4
/DBU as catalyst has been examined. The microstructures
thermal properties and molecular weights of the obtained polymers were characterized by NMR
DSC and GPC. The copolymerization of IGG with EO has also been successfully achieved at room temperature in toluene. The EO-IGG copolymers with controllable contents were conveniently obtained in 100% yield within 30 min by changing the feed ratio of IGG to EO. The hydrolysis of EO-IGG copolymers afforded the corresponding hydroxyl functionalized copolymers (EO-GG) under acidic conditions for 2 h at room temperature
and the ketal structures in EO-IGG copolymers were completely transformed to hydroxyl. The
13
C-NMR analysis of EO-GG copolymers showed that the hydroxyl groups were randomly distributed in EO-GG copolymers. The GPC analysis of EO-GG copolymers showed that the EO-GG copolymers with high molecular weight (
M
n
= 5.9×10
4
‒18.1×10
4
) and narrow distribution (
M
w
/
M
n
= 1.32‒1.54) were obtained. The molecular weight of the copolymers can be adjusted by changing the molar ratio of monomer to
i
-Bu
3
Al. The EO-GG copolymers with different compositions possessed a glass transition temperature (
T
g
= -5~-28 ℃)
which increased with the hydroxyl content in EO-GG copolymers. When the EO content in EO-GG copolymers was higher than 90 mol%
the EO-GG copolymer possessed a melting point of 51 ℃. With the increase of the hydroxyl content in EO-GG copolymers
the hydrophilicit
y of EO-GG copolymers was improved obviously. By the two-step reaction of copolymerization and hydrolysis
the hydroxyl functionalized polyethylene oxides with high molecular weight were obtained in 100% yield
and the hydroxyl groups with controllable content were randomly distributed in the polyethylene oxide.
Dworak A, Walach W. Polymer, 2009, 50(15): 3440-3447. doi:10.1016/j.polymer.2009.05.029http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2009.05.029
Libera M, Trzebicka B, Kowalczuk A, Dworak A. Polymer, 2011, 52(2): 250-257. doi:10.1016/j.polymer.2010.12.001http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2010.12.001