Thesis (PhD (Chemistry and Polymer Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The research presented in this dissertation was concerned with the living radical
polymerization (LRP) of an amphiphilic, water-soluble, bi-substituted and
biologically compatible acrylamide derivative, namely n-acryloylmorpholine (NAM).
The primary objective of this research was the synthesis of novel block
copolymers containing poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and various chain lengths
of poly(acryloylmorpholine) (polyNAM) using a LRP technique, namely reversibleaddition
fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. This is the first report
on the synthesis of these block copolymers using RAFT polymerization. These
novel siloxane block copolymers were synthesized using a monohydroxyterminated
PDMS material which had to first be modified into a thiocarbonylthiocontaining
moiety in order for it to be used as macromolecular chain transfer agent
(macroCTA) in the RAFT copolymerization with NAM.
Suitable reaction conditions for the synthesis of these novel block copolymers had
to, firstly, be determined, and secondly, optimized. In order to determine suitable
reaction conditions, a series of homopolymerizations with NAM were first
performed in order to compare which chain transfer agent (CTA), solvent,
temperature etc. could possibly be best suited for the block copolymerizations of
PDMS-b-polyNAM. Reported in this work is the first account of the
homopolymerization of NAM and 2-(dodecylsulfanyl)thiocarbonylsulfanyl-2-methyl
propionic acid (DMP) as CTA using RAFT polymerization.
The resulting novel siloxane block copolymers are amphiphilic in nature and the
existence of these structures was confirmed by size exclusion
chromatography/multiangle light scattering (SEC/MALS), proton nuclear magnetic
resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy, gel elution chromatography (GEC) and
transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Interesting phase behaviour was
observed in the latter technique.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1303 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Staisch, Ingrid |
| Contributors | Sanderson, R. D., Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Science. Dept. of Chemistry and Polymer Science. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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