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ARTICLE

Adjustment of Molecular Weight for a Cellulose-graft-poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) Polymer Brush by Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization in an Ionic Liquid

by

a School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050018, China
b School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050018, China

* Corresponding Author: e-mail: , (E.J. Tang)

Journal of Polymer Materials 2018, 35(2), 245-256.

Abstract

A cellulose-graft-poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) (cellulose-g-PEGDMA) molecule brush was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization in the ionic liquid 1-allyl-3- methylimidazolium chloride. The controlled mechanism of the polymer brush size and polydispersity index (PDI, Mw/Mn) were investigated. The grafting copolymers were characterized by FTIR, ¹H-NMR and GPC. The results indicate that the reaction time was the main factor to control the length of the cellulose-g-PEGDMA molecule brush. The ligand was the decisive factor in controlling the PDI of the molecule brush. The PDI of PEGDMA was precisely controlled at 1.1–1.4 by using pentamethyldiethylenetriamine(PMDETA) as the ligand. Moreover, the graft molecule brush length could be varied with the change of PMDETA concentration. The Mn of PEGDMA was 75210 and had a narrow PDI of 1.15 when the PMDETA/CuBr ratio was 20:1. In addition, TEM images show that the cellulose-g-PEGDMA copolymer could aggregate and selfassemble into a sphere-like polymeric structure in solution, indicating that the obtained grafting copolymers have potential applications in biomedical materials.

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