An electrochemically mediated ATRP synthesis of lignin-g-PDMAPS UCST-thermoresponsive polymer.

It is a promising idea to graft zwitterionic polymers onto lignin and prepare lignin-grafted-poly [2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl] dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium hydroxide (Lignin-g-PDMAPS) thermosensitive polymer with the upper critical solution temperature (UCST). In this paper, an electrochemically mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (eATRP) method was used to prepare Lignin-g-PDMAPS. The structure and property of the Lignin-g-PDMAPS polymer were characterized by the fourier transform infrared spectrum (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray electron spectroscopy (XPS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Furthermore, the effect of catalyst structure, applied potential, amount of Lignin-Br, Lignin-g-PDMAPS concentration, NaCl concentration on UCST of Lignin-g-PDMAPS were investigated. It was worth noting that polymerization was well controlled when the ligand was tris (2-aminoethyl) amine (MeTREN), applied potential was -0.38 V and the amount of Lignin-Br was 100 mg. And the UCST of the Lignin-g-PDMAPS aqueous solution (1 mg/ml) was 51.47 °C, the molecular weight was 8987 g/mol, and the particle size was 318 nm. It was also found that the UCST increased and the particle size decreased with the Lignin-g-PDMAPS polymer concentration increased, and the UCST decreased and the particle size increased with the NaCl concentration increases. This work investigated UCST-thermoresponsive polymer which possessed lignin main chain combining the zwitterionic side chain, and provided a new way for development of lignin based UCST-thermoresponsive materials and medical carrier materials, in addition to expand the scope of eATRP.