Poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) is widely used for the production of polyurethane foams and nonionic surfactants. Despite its importance in industry and its similar structure to poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), only a small number of multifunctional PPO is known. The new class of multi amine functionalized PPO polymers were synthesized by the anionic ring opening polymerization (AROP) of propylene oxide (PO) and N,N-diethyl glycidyl amine (DEGA). The use of PPO macro initiators with one or two hydroxyl functionalities in an AROP of DEGA yielded PPO-b-PDEGA block and triblock copolymers. These block copolymer structures showed dispersities below 1.1. A synthesis route for the copolymerization of PO with DEGA in random fashion was developed to obtain random copolymers with different contents of amine functionalities and dispersities below 1.1. This synthesis strategy also made the synthesis of PolyDEGA possible, which had not been achieved before by AROP. The detailed characterization of the polymers was performed by size exclusion chromatography (SEC), 1H-NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (MS) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The synthesized block copolymers and random copolymer structures showed thermo-responsive behavior in aqueous solution by exhibiting a cloud point. In neutral aqueous solutions, the LCST increases with increasing ratio of DEGA in the polymer. Due to the amine group, the pH of the solution has a strong impact on the cloud temperature. By changing the pH, the cloud point of a polymer solution could be tuned between 0 °C and 100 °C. These thermo- and pH-responsive properties were studied by turbidity measurements. The strong pH- and thermo-responsive behavior makes multi amine functional poly(propylene oxide) an interesting smart material.

Amino functional poly(propylene oxide)

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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