Synthesis and characterization of novel rod-coil (tadpole) poly(linoleic acid) based graft copolymers

Synthesis of novel poly (styrene)-g-poly(linoleic acid)-g-poly(ethylene glycol) amphiphilic rod-coil tadpole and poly (styrene)-g-poly(linoleic acid)-g-poly (dimethyl siloxane) double hydrophobic rod-coil tadpole graft copolymers have been reported. In the first step, poly(linoleic acid) peroxide macro initiator (PLina) was prepared by exposing linoleic acid to air at room temperature for three weeks, in view of the autoxidation process. In the second step, poly styrene-g-poly linoleic acid graft copolymer (PLinaS) was prepared by the polymerization of styrene initiated by PLina. In the third step, PS-g-PLina-g-PEG rod-coil tadpole amphiphilic graft copolymer and PS-g-PLina-g-PolyPDMS rod-coil tadpole double hydrophobic graft copolymers were obtained by the reaction of carboxylic ends of PLinaS with polyethylene glycol (PEG) with primary amine terminal and poly (dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) with primary amine terminals. The target copolymers and all intermediates were well characterized by GPC, FTIR, ¹H NMR, DSC, and TGA in detail.