Synthesis of Highly Defined Graft Copolymers Using a Cyclic Acetal Moiety as a Two-Stage Latent Initiating Site for Successive Living Cationic Polymerization and Ring-Opening Anionic Polymerization

The synthesis of well-defined graft copolymers with designed intervals between branches was achieved using cyclic acetal moieties as two-stage latent initiating sites. A cyclic acetal was shown to initiate the living cationic polymerization of vinyl ethers (VEs), yielding a polymer with a hydroxy group at the α-end derived from the cyclic acetal. The newly generated hydroxy group was able to efficiently induce the subsequent ring-opening anionic polymerization of l-lactide (LLA), and a diblock copolymer with a narrow molecular weight distribution (MWD) was obtained. For the synthesis of a graft copolymer, a five-membered cyclic acetal moiety was introduced at the ω-chain ends of poly(VE)s, which was employed as the initiating site for the living cationic polymerization of VEs. Repeated polymerization and acetalization generated a macroinitiator with several hydroxy groups on the side chain of a poly(VE) backbone. Graft copolymers possessing branches with narrow MWDs and regular spaces between the branches were synthesized by the ring-opening polymerization of LLA using this macroinitiator.