Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol.37, No.23, 4412-4421, 1999
Bis[4-monosubstituted-5(4H)oxazolinones] as coupling agents for block copolymer synthesis: Reaction with amine-terminated oligomers and with hydroxy-terminated/amine-terminated oligomer mixtures
Block copolymers were prepared by the bulk reaction of mixtures of amine-terminated aliphatic polyamides and polyethers with bis [4-monosubstituted 5(4H)-oxazolinones] as the coupling agents. The simultaneous chain-coupling reaction of amine-terminated polyethers and hydroxy-terminated polyesters with these coupling agents also was investigated. As indicated by NMR and size exclusion chromatography studies, block copolymers of <(M-n)over bar> greater than or equal to 10,000 were obtained without side reactions in a much shorter reaction time than required when the conventional reaction was used between oligomers bearing mutually reactive end-groups. The block copolymers behaved as thermoplastic elastomers. Their thermal and thermomechanical properties were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and compared to the block copolymers synthesized in the conventional way. When low molar mass oligomers were used (<(M-n)over bar> less than or equal to 1000), copolymers of low crystallinity or amorphous copolymers were obtained. This was assigned to the disruption of chain regularity induced by the presence of the chain-coupling-agent moieties. However, properties comparable to those of copolymers obtained by using the conventional method were obtained by reacting oligomers of <(M-n)over bar> greater than or equal to 2000.
Keywords:coupling agent;bis [5-(4H)oxazolinone];oligomer coupling reaction;amine-terminated oligomer;hydroxy-terminated oligomer;block copolymers