Gel forming waterborne dispersion polymerization of sodium p-styrene sulfonate with glycidyl methacrylate

Roshan F. Dsouza, Anbanandam Parthiban

Index: 10.1002/pola.28936

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Water soluble monomer like sodium p-styrene sulfonate (SSS) is copolymerized with hydrophobic and reactive monomer glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The polymerization proceeds as dispersion and forms gels. The gel forming nature prevails even with other hydrophobic and hydrophilic monomers to form ternary polymeric systems. The swelling is dependent on polymer composition as well as the treatment history of polymers. SSS also induces ring opening of GMA to form 1,2-diols as confirmed independently by various model reactions. The ability of hydrogels to absorb various dyes indicates that owing to the anionic nature, hydrogels absorb cationic dyes nearly quantitatively. Because of their strong affinity to cationic species these hydrogel forming polymers are potentially useful in water purification applications as well as purification of proteins. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017. Dispersion polymerization of sodium p-styrene sulfonate (SSS) with glycidyl methacrylate at 3:2 ratio yielded hydrogels. Ternary polymers formed by using hydrophobic monomers like MMA and hydrophilic monomers like sodium acrylate also yielded hydrogels with varying degree of swelling. Model experiments revealed that SSS-induced ring opening of GMA. Thus, ring opening occurred to form 1,2-diols simultaneously with copolymerization. The formation of hydrogel was mainly due to the presence of physical network formed through H-bonding interactions. Swelling in water was strongly dependent on the treatment of polymers.