SYNTHESIS AND MISCIBILITY STUDIES OF SOME C??-CONTAINING POLYMERS

Abstract

C60 was functionalized with ethanolamine and diethanolamine to various degree by employing different C60:amine stoichiometric ratios. Some of these C60 derivatives were successfully copolymerized with N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone and 2- hydroxyethyl methacrylate under different polymerization conditions to give various C60-containing poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) and C60-containing poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) products. The former is readily soluble in water if its C60 content does not exceed 5.4%. Moreover, miscibility behaviour of the C60-containing polymers was investigated. C60-containing poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) were found to form interpolymeric complexes with poly(4-vinylphenol) in methanol. However, the yield of these C60-containing complexes decreases with increasing C60 content in the C60- containing poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone). The same trend was observed for the glass transition temperature for the C60-containing complexes. On the other hand, C60- containing poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) was only partially miscible with poly(N-methyl-N-vinylacetamide) in methanol despite that poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)/ poly(N-methyl-N-vinylacetamide) is a miscible system. Hence, the incorporation of functionalized C60, carrying hydroxyl groups, into poly(N-vinyl-2- pyrrolidone) or poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) did not improve the miscibility of the polymers.