Sustainable rosin polymer grafted cellulose copolymers (cellulose-g-PMAEDA) were prepared by ATRP using microcrystalline cellulose as raw material in homogeneous media.In particular

the microcrystalline cellulose was transformed into 2-bromoisobutyryl-functionalizaed cellulose in LiCl/DMAc homogeneous media

subsequently

the renewable and hydrophobic monomer

(2-methacryloyloxy)ethyl ester of dehydroabietic acid (MAEDA)

was used for the ATRP polymerization of side chains of the amphiphilic cellulose-g-PMAEDA under the catalysis system of CuBr/PMDETA.Kinetic studies indicated the polymerization process was controlled and living.The successful formation of copolymers was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)

1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR)

gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD).Owing to the introduction of PMAEDA side chains

the cellulose-g-PMAEDA graft copolymers showed enhanced thermal stability which was confirmed by thermal gravity analysis (TGA).The UV absorption spectrograph and water contact angle measurement were employed to investigate the UV absorption ability and hydrophobicity of the prepared cellulose-g-PMAEDA graft copolymers.The results showed that the attachment of rosin based polymer side chains imparted the excellent UV absorption ability and good hydrophobicity to the cellulose-g-PMAEDA graft copolymers.The self-assembly behavior of the cellulose-g-PMAEDA graft copolymers was also studied by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).The DLS results showed that the cellulose-g-PMAEDA graft copolymers could form micelles with Z-average size of 200 nm and PDI of 0.195; the TEM results further illustrated that cellulose-g-PMAEDA graft copolymers could form spherical micelles with the core-shell structure and the diameters of micelles were around 200 nm

which could be used in drug delivery.