Preparation and Characterization of PAM-b-DOPOAA by ATRP

Graphical In this work, we successfully prepared PAM-b-DOPOAA block copolymers using the ATRP method. The analysis showed that the ATRP method can regulate the chain segment length and ratio of the resulting polymer with a narrow molecular weight distribution. The prepared block copolymers can be used as a good flame retardant antistatic agent. Polyacrylamide has been a hot topic of research in recent years, however, the preparation of block copolymers of polyacrylamide using ATRP method has been little studied. In this paper, polyacrylamide with reactive group bromine (PAM−Br) was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using acrylamide (AM) as the monomer and water as the solvent, and polyacrylamide was used as the macromolecular initiator for the next reaction step. Then 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphafi-10-oxide (DOPO) was organically modified to obtain acrylate monomers with DOPO functional groups (DOPOAA), and a mixture of water and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was used as the solvent to obtain PAM-b-DOPOAA block copolymers with controllable molecular mass and narrow molecular mass distribution. The effects of the molecular mass of the macromolecular initiator, polymerization time, and the molar ratio of catalyst to the ligand on the polymerization process were investigated. The structure and properties of the products were also characterized by 1 H-NMR, FTIR, XPS, DSC, TG, etc. The PAM-b-DOPOAA prepared by ATRP method can artificially design the length and ratio of the two chain segments, realizing one additive with two functions and the permanent existence of the function of polymer additives.