Supercritical carbon dioxide assisted synthesis of amphiphilic graft copolymers based on poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) with methoxyl poly(ethylene glycol) side chains

Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) was used as a reaction medium in synthesizing amphiphilic graft copolymers composed of poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (SMA) backbones and methoxyl poly(ethylene glycol) (MPEG) side chains via esterification. The synthesized copolymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), 1H-NMR, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetric analysis (DSC). The gelation phenomenon was suppressed effectively by tuning reaction conditions. The influences of scCO2 temperature and pressure on the conversion of anhydride were investigated. It was found that the highest conversion ratio occurred at 80°C under a constant pressure of 14 MPa or 26 MPa. With the increase of scCO2 pressure, the conversion ratio increased first, and then leveled off. The conversion ratio of anhydride could be controlled by regulating the reaction conditions. It was also revealed that using low molecular weight MPEG brought a high conversion ratio of anhydride.