Thermodynamic Interactions between Polystyrene and Long-Chain Poly(n-Alkyl Acrylates) Derived from Plant Oils

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• 作者：Shu Wang ; Megan L. Robertson
• 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：June 10, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：7
• 期：22
• 页码：12109-12118
• 全文大小：362K
• ISSN：1944-8252

文摘

Vegetable oils and their fatty acids are promising sources for the derivation of polymers. Long-chain poly(n-alkyl acrylates) and poly(n-alkyl methacrylates) are readily derived from fatty acids through conversion of the carboxylic acid end-group to an acrylate or methacrylate group. The resulting polymers contain long alkyl side-chains with around 10鈥?2 carbon atoms. Regardless of the monomer source, the presence of alkyl side-chains in poly(n-alkyl acrylates) and poly(n-alkyl methacrylates) provides a convenient mechanism for tuning their physical properties. The development of structured multicomponent materials, including block copolymers and blends, containing poly(n-alkyl acrylates) and poly(n-alkyl methacrylates) requires knowledge of the thermodynamic interactions governing their self-assembly, typically described by the Flory鈥揌uggins interaction parameter 蠂. We have investigated the 蠂 parameter between polystyrene and long-chain poly(n-alkyl acrylate) homopolymers and copolymers: specifically we have included poly(stearyl acrylate), poly(lauryl acrylate), and their random copolymers. Lauryl and stearyl acrylate were chosen as model alkyl acrylates derived from vegetable oils and have alkyl side-chain lengths of 12 and 18 carbon atoms, respectively. Polystyrene is included in this study as a model petroleum-sourced polymer, which has wide applicability in commercially relevant multicomponent polymeric materials. Two independent methods were employed to measure the 蠂 parameter: cloud point measurements on binary blends and characterization of the order鈥揹isorder transition of triblock copolymers, which were in relatively good agreement with one another. The 蠂 parameter was found to be independent of the alkyl side-chain length (n) for large values of n (i.e., n > 10). This behavior is in stark contrast to the n-dependence of the 蠂 parameter predicted from solubility parameter theory. Our study complements prior work investigating the interactions between polystyrene and short-chain polyacrylates (n 鈮?10). To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the thermodynamic interactions between polystyrene and long-chain poly(n-alkyl acrylates) with n > 10. This work lays the groundwork for the development of multicomponent structured systems (i.e., blends and copolymers) in this class of sustainable materials.