Preparation and Performance Study of HTPB- g-(PNIPAM/PEG) Thermoresponsive Polymer Brush

Pengzhi Bi; Xiuzhong Zhu; Li Tian; Jinbang Han; Wanbin Zhang; Tong Wang

doi:10.3390/polym16091248

Preparation and Performance Study of HTPB- g-(PNIPAM/PEG) Thermoresponsive Polymer Brush

Polymers (Basel). 2024 Apr 29;16(9):1248. doi: 10.3390/polym16091248.

Authors

Pengzhi Bi¹, Xiuzhong Zhu^{1

2

3}, Li Tian¹, Jinbang Han¹, Wanbin Zhang², Tong Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Biobased Material and Green Papermaking, Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science & Technology of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Light Industry, Key Laboratory for Green Leather Manufacture Technology of China National Light Industry Council, Faculty of Light Industry, Qilu University of Technology, Shandong Academy of Sciences, Jinan 250353, China.
² Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710021, China.
³ Shandong Huatai Paper Co., Ltd. & Shandong Yellow Triangle Biotechnology Industry Research Institute Co., Ltd., Dongying 275335, China.
⁴ The Key Laboratory of Space Applied Physics and Chemistry, Ministry of Education and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Science and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.

Abstract

In recent years, a great deal of work has been devoted to the development of thermoresponsive polymers that can be made into new types of smart materials. In this paper, a branched polymer, HTPB-g-(PNIPAM/PEG), with polyolefin chain segments as the backbone and having polyethylene glycol (PEG) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) as side chains was synthesized by ATRP and click reactions using N₃-HTPB-Br as the macroinitiator. This initiator was designed and synthesized using hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as the substrate. The temperature-responsive behavior of the branched polymer was investigated. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the branched polymer was determined by ultraviolet and visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis) and was found to be 35.2 °C. The relationship between the diameter size of micelles and temperature was determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS). It was found that the diameter size changed at 36 °C, which was nearly consistent with the result obtained by UV-vis. The results of the study indicate that HTPB-g-(PNIPAM/PEG) is a temperature-responsive polymer. At room temperature, the polymer can self-assemble into composite micelles, with the main chain as the core and the branched chain as the shell. When the temperature was increased beyond LCST, the polyolefin main chain along with the PNIPAM branched chain assembled to form the nucleus, and the PEG branched chain constituted the shell.

Keywords: N-isopropylacrylamide; hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene; modification of HTPB; performance study; polyethylene glycol; structural characterization; thermoresponsive polymer brush.

Grants and funding

The work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2021QE137); Qilu University of Technology talent research project (2023RCKY203); the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology and Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology (No. KFKT2022-01); the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi province (No. 2023-JC-YB-354).