Influence of β‐Cyclodextrin on the Free‐Radical Copolymerization of N‐(4‐Methylphenyl)maleimide with N‐Vinylpyrrolidone in Water

Abstract

Randomly methylated β -cyclodextrin (me-β -CD) is used to include the hydrophobic monomer N -(4-methylphenyl)maleimide (MPM) ( 1 ) yielding the corresponding water-soluble host-guest structure 1a . Free-radical copolymerization of 1a with N -vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) ( 2 ) is performed and the reactivity ratios r 1 and r 2 are determined: 0.24 ± 0.03 ( r 2 ) and 1.10 ± 0.05 ( r 1a ). This indicates a preferred incorporation of complexed maleimide into the copolymer chain. In contrast to that, the copolymerization of the uncomplexed monomers 1 and 2 is carried out using organic solvent (DMF/H 2 O) showing reactivity ratios corresponding to nearly alternating copolymerization ( r 2 = 0.09 ± 0.02; r 1 = 0.34 ± 0.03).

New, Aqueous Radical (Co)Polymerization of Olefins at Low Temperature and Pressure

“…The hydrophobic cavity of CDs binds suitable organics by hydrophobic interactions and/or H-bonds, while the hydrophilic outer shell provides the water solubility. Ritter et al successfully polymerized various hydrophobic monomers, such as styrene [33][34][35][36][37][38], (meth)acrylates [33,34,[39][40][41][42][43][44], phenol derivatives [45,46], fumarates [47,48], dienes [49,50], halo-olefins [51][52][53], and other non-commercial ones [54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] in water, solubilized by CD, via free radical polymerization methods. During the polymerization, the CD, every time, slips off from the last monomeric unit of the polymer, and the product precipitates, resulting in a pure product, or simple purification.…”