A study on template effects using irregular porous isotactic poly(methyl methacrylate) films constructed with syndiotactic rich poly(methacrylic acid) and isotactic poly(methyl methacrylate)

Abstract

To investigate the stereocomplex formation efficiency with various syndiotactic-poly(methacrylic acids) (st-PMAAs) after the extraction of the syndiotactic-rich PMAA from stereocomplex film, the low syndiotacticity of PMAA (rr=78%) was used to prepare irregular isotactic poly(methyl methacrylate) (it-PMMA)/st-PMAA (rr=78%) stereocomplex thin films on substrates. The resultant irregular porous it-PMMA thin films showed effective incorporation of st-PMAA (rr=78 and 96%), suggesting a structural rearrangement of the it-PMMA main chain. However, the template polymerization in porous it-PMMA thin films with a monomer of methacrylic acid resulted in a stereoregular replica of the st-PMAA, without any rearrangement of the it-PMMA. When irregular stereocomplex formation was employed, these results demonstrated a clear difference between polymer-polymer interactions and polymer-monomer interactions and indicated that a high stereoregularity was necessary to achieve strict control of the stereoregular template polymerization on the porous thin film. © 2013 The Society of Polymer Science, Japan (SPSJ) All rights reserved.