MICROPHASE SEPARATED STRUCTURES AND PROPERTIES OF PDMS-MDIPEG COPOLYMER SURFACE

A series of poly(dimethylsiloxane)(PDMS)-4,4′-diphenylmethanediisocyanate(MDI)-poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG) multiblock copolymers were synthesized by employing two-step growth polymerization and investigated by AFM,XPS. contact angle system,protein adsorption and platelets adhesion measurements,respectively.It was found that as the molecular weight of PDMS increased,the surface of copolymers had increasing phase separation,while the increase in the molecular weight of PEG decreased the phase separation extents of the copolymer surface.XPS and contact angle measurements showed that the greater the phase separation extent was,the lower both the surface enrichment of PDMS and the surface free energy of the copolymer film were.The protein adsorption experiments indicated that the best phase separation did not exhibit the best biocompatibility.

Synthesis, Purification and Characterization of Amphiphilic and Microphase Separated Graft Copolymer Polystyrene-g-Poly(ethylene oxide)

The present paper covers the poly (ethylene oxide) macromer with vinyl benzyl terminal group (PEO-VB) prepared by deactivation of the alkoxide function of mono-functional 'living' PEO chains with vinyl benzyl chloride (VBC). The obtained macromers were subjected to careful purification and detailed characterization. A new kind of amphiphilic polystyrene-g-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-g-PEO) with both mi-crophase separated and PEO side chains was synthesized from radical copolymerization of PEO-VB macromer with styrene monomer. An improved purification method, referred as 'selective dissolvation', was established for the isolation of graft copolymers from the grafting products, and the purity and yield of the purified copolymers were satisfactory. The well-defined structure of the purified copolymers was confirmed by IR, 1H NMR and GPC. The bulk composition of the graft copolymers was determined by a well-established first derivative UV spectrometry. Various experimental parameters controlling the copolymerization were also studied. The results indicate that the feed ratio of macromer to styrene (M/S) was the most important factor in determining the composition of the copolymers. Thus a series of PS-g-PEO with a wide range of bulk compositions were obtained simply by adjusting the value of M/S. As clearly indicated by transmission electron microscopy, this amphiphilic graft copolymers may readily form microphase separated structures.