RAFT mediated dispersion copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate and octadecyl methacrylate

Micrometer sized copolymeric particles of glycidyl methacrylate and octadecyl methacrylate (poly(GMA-co-OMA) were prepared by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) mediated dispersion copolymerization technique using polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as steric stabilizer and 2-cyano-2-propyl benzodithioate (CPB) as RAFT agent in ethanol. Different reaction parameters on the characteristics of poly(GMA-co-OMA) particles and their effects were investigated thoroughly in the presence of RAFT agent. Formation of poly(GMA-co-OMA) particle sizes, its stability and morphology depends on the concentration of RAFT agent, stabilizer as well as the monomer ratio. Spherical poly(GMA-co-OMA) particles of size ranges1-13 μm were obtained after optimization of the ratio between GMA and OMA. In the presence of RAFT, with the increased amount of hydrophobic monomer OMA, instabilities of the particles are observed while particle sizes found to be decreased with the increased amount of GMA in the reaction mixture. Prepared poly(GMA-co-OMA) particles were characterized by different analytical techniques such as NMR, IR, GPC, TGA etc. while Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM) was applied to study the poly(GMA-co-OMA) particle sizes and its morphology.