A facile strategy to synthesize poly(methyl methacrylate)-co-polyisobutylene via a deoxygenation reaction

Poly(methyl methacrylate) or PMMA is a versatile material because of its ease of manipulation and biocompatibility.However, brittleness limits its applications; hence, copolymerization of PMMA with rubber such as polyisobutylene (PIB) is required.PMMA-co-PIB preparation by conventional copolymerization requires the purification of co-monomers under an inert atmosphere.In this study, the transformation of PMMA into PMMA-co-PIB was explored using a deoxygenation reaction.PMMA was treated with tris(pentafluorophenyl) borane and 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (TMDS) at room temperature, 50, and 70 C for 1, 2, and 3 day reaction times.FTIR results revealed a reduction in the ester functional group of PMMA at 1724 cm -1 .PMMA was partially converted into PIB moieties, forming PMMA-co-PIB.The highest degree of deoxygenation (48.2%) was obtained after a reaction for 1 day at room temperature.When the PIB structure was present in the PMMA backbone, the PMMA glass transition temperature (115.6 C) was shifted to a lower temperature (83.7 C).A significant decrease in the modulus of PMMA from 3.40 to 1.29 GPa (PMMA-co-PIB) reveals improved toughness.This straightforward post-polymerization approach involving the deoxygenation of PMMA offers a promising, simple, and mild condition for synthesizing PMMA-co-PIB.This will enable new applications in medical appliances or high-value coating materials.