Synthesis and characterization of linear diblock and triblock copolymers of 2-vinyl pyridine and ethylene oxide

This work describes a synthesis of linear diblock and triblock copolymers of 2-vinyl pyridine (2VP) and ethylene oxide (EO). The overall synthetic approach involved polymerization of 2VP, followed by polymerization with EO. Neutralization of the reactive end-groups of the living diblock P2VP-b-PEO(−)K(+) produced the diblock copolymer P2VP-b-PEO. Reaction with dibromoxylene in the presence of CsI led to the triblock copolymer, P2VP-b-PEO-b-P2VP. The triblock copolymers were separated by fractionation at 40 °C. Copolymers were characterized by size exclusion chromatography, light scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Characterization showed that the materials have high molecular and compositional homogeneity.