Patent Application: US-92352207-A

Abstract:
the present invention discloses a method for making blended polymers by utilizing fluorophilic inter - polymer associative interactions between perfluorocarbon functional groups attached on the constituent polymers . the method of the present invention is capable of forming blended polymers from otherwise incompatible polymers . also disclosed are blended polymers obtained by the method thereof . methods and devices utilizing novel blended polymer of the present invention including chromatography , catalysis , photonic and sensor applications are also provided .

Description:
as set forth above , it is desirable to be able to combine polymers having various desirable characteristics to form a blend which may exhibit the combined beneficial characteristics or possess superior emergent properties derived from the constituents . for instance , the blending of poly ( meth ) acrylates ( pmma ), or other polymers with low glass transition temperatures , with polystyrene have been shown to improve mechanical properties by increasing toughness and other physical properties . examples are known in which simple blends of this type give properties that are weighted averages of their components , thus allowing fine - tuning of optical , mechanical and other properties . however , due to the fact that polymers having various desirable characteristics are often incompatible with each other ( e . g . hydrophobic and hydrophilic polymers ), blending these polymers often prove to be challenging , if not impossible . even when blended , the resulting characteristics of the polymer blend are often less than ideal . in view of the difficulties in the art , the present invention provides a method that is capable of overcoming these difficulties and enabling formation of polymer blends from previously incompatible constituent polymers . in general , methods in accordance with the present invention are based on the discovery that polymers with fluorocarbon ( r f ) functional groups attached may exhibit “ fluorophilic ” associative interactions which allows previous incompatible polymers to form coherent blends . upon annealing , blends of these polymers interact through fluorophilic interactions and give polymer blends that exhibit block - copolymer - like morphologies and properties . in one aspect , a method of the present invention has the general steps of : ( 1 ) attaching r f functional groups to constituent polymers ; and ( 2 ) blending the constituent polymers to form a polymer blend . constituent polymers are preferably synthetic linear polymers . exemplary linear polymers may include : a . vinyl polymers having the general structure of —[ ch 2 — c ( r ) c ( y )═ x ] n where x and y can be carbon oxygen , sulfur or nitrogen and r is a group that includes alkyl , cn , or other small groups consistent with favorable polymerization thermodynamics . these include polymers synthesized by polymerization or copolymerization by radical , cationic , anionic , metallocene , metathesis or other polymerization methods involving organometallic initiators . this group includes but is not limited to : polystyrene , polyethylene , polypropylene , polyisobutylene , polybutadiene , polyisoprene , polymethylmethracrylate , polybutylmethacrylate and other polymethacrylates , polybutylacrylate and other polyalkylacrylates , polyvinylchloride , polyvinylcarbazole , polyvinylpyrrolidone , polyacetylene , polyvinylferrocene , polyacrylonitrile , polyvinylacetate polyvinyl ( oxadiazole ) and similar vinyl polymers having heterocyclic pendent groups . included are also the copolymers incorporating two or more of the above vinyl monomers . b . polyethers , polyesters , polyamides , polyacetals polysiloxanes formed by anionic or cationic ring opening chain polymerization of cyclic ethers , lactones , lactams and n - carboxyanhydrides , cyclic acetals and cyclic siloxanes respectively . included are also the copolymers incorporating two or more of the above cyclic monomers . pendent group functionalization is carried out by copolymerization with the corresponding r f - functionalized comonomers . end functionalization is carried out by reaction of the polymer end groups with suitable r f compounds using well known conventional chemistry , i . e . reaction of anionic or cationic end groups with suitable nucleophiles or electrophiles containing r f groups . c . polymers or copolymers synthesized by step ( co ) polymerizations including but not limited to : polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate , polyamides containing alkylidene groups in the main chain such as : nylon 6 / 6 , nylon 6 , nylon 6 / 10 , nylon 12 , nylon 11 , nylon 12 / 12 , polyamides and polyimides , containing aromatic ( 1 , 4 - phenylene or 5 - or 6 - membered heterocyclic aromatic ) groups in the main chain for example : imidazole , oxazole , pyrazole , tetrazole , triazole , thiophene , pyridine , triazine and similar heterocyclic groups . other examples include but are not limited to : polyurethanes , polycarbonates , aromatic polyethers having one or two alkyl groups on the phenylene group or polysulfides , poly ( p - xylylene ), polyurethanes , polysulfides , polyurethanes and polysiloxanes . these aforementioned polymers are for illustrations only and are not intended to be limiting in any way . a personal skilled in the art will recognized that any other linear polymers commonly known in the art having similar characteristics may also be used . in some embodiments , other types of polymers , including non - linear polymers may also be beneficially employed . suitable r f functional groups may include : —( cf 2 ) n cf 2 h , — co ( cf 2 ) n cf 2 h , —( cf 2 ) n cf 3 , — co ( cf 2 ) n cf 3 or groups of this type having the structure : — s ( cf 2 ) n cf 3 , — s — co ( cf 2 ) n cf 3 , — s —( cf 2 ) n cf 2 h or — s — co ( cf 2 ) n cf 2 h where s is a spacer group containing one or more methylenes and may containing one or more oxygen or other heteroatoms , or any other r f groups commonly known in the art . attachment of the r f functional groups can be done either at the polymer synthesis stage or be added after synthesis in a post - production process . suitable methods for making the attachment will depend on the particular functional group and polymer of choice . it will also depend on the location and proportion of attachment to be made . for example , an r f group may be attached at the terminal end of a polymer ( i . e . end - capped ) or on the side along the linear chain ( i . e . pendent attachment ). exemplary chemical methods for attaching an r f group to a polymer may include using a free radical initiator containing an r f group such as a peroxide or azo type initiator . alternatively the r f groups are introduced by a chain - or step - copolymerization of a comonomer having at least one of the above r f group ( s ). the incorporation of r f groups is well known to those skilled in the art and may involve the incorporation of such groups by electrophilic or nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions and / or by well known reactions of the r f - containing alcohols or amines with esters , carboxylic acids or acid halide groups or perfluorocarbon acylhalides or anhydrides with alcohols or amines of the comonomers . an example of such an initiator is an ester formed by reaction of a perfluorocarbon alcohol such as 1 , 1 , 2 , 2 , tetrahydroperfluorodecanol with alphabromoisobutyrylbromide to give the corresponding r f - alphabromoester that is used to initiate vinyl monomers via atom transfer polymerization ( atrp ) in the presence of cuprous / cupric ion in an organic solvent . fig1 shows an exemplary synthesis mechanism for attaching a fluorocarbon to an end of a polymer . in some embodiments , a spacer ( s ) may also be inserted between the r f group and the polymer . suitable spacers may include small groups containing one or more methylenes and may containing one or more oxygen or other heteroatoms . in still some embodiments , the r f group may further include a small molecular moiety , for example , a chromophore , or a functional group such as a sugar suitable for molecular recognition . the r f functionalized constituent polymers can be blended together by any blending means commonly known in the art . the proportion of each constituent polymer forming the blend will depend on application and desired properties . preferably , blending involves physical blending in the solution state . in some embodiments , blending may also be achieved in solid state . in one exemplary embodiment , blending may be carried out in ordinary laboratory glassware equipped for heating stirring or in simple pilot or plant reactors similarly equipped . the blends are preferably uniform and stay uniform with no phase separation upon cooling and reheating . in still some embodiments , blending may follow a self - organization process and do not require much assistance in the way of physical stirring . for the purpose of the present invention , polymer blends obtained from methods of the present invention will be generally referred to as “ fluorocarbon mediated polymer blends ,” or fmb for short . such blends may have superior characteristics including , for example , improved toughness , strength , transparency , conductivity , lubricity , or any other desired characteristics . thus , they may naturally lend themselves to a wide range of applications . to further illustrate the advantages and potential applications of the present invention , the following specific examples are provided . as an example of the present invention , perfluorocarbon terminated polystyrene ( r f - ps ) and poly n - butyl methacrylate ( r f - pbma ) were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization ( atrp ), using a partially fluorinated initiator ( 2 - bromo - 2 - methyl - propionic acid 2 , 2 , 3 , 3 , 4 , 4 , 5 , 5 , 6 , 6 , 7 , 7 , 8 , 8 , 8 - pentadecafluorooctyl ester ) ( perrier , s . ; jackson s . g . ; haddleton , d . m . et al . tetrahedron , 2002 , 58 , 4053 , the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference ), and characterized by size exclusion chromatography ( sec ) and 1 h and 19 f nmr , as shown in table 1 . thin (˜ 0 . 1 - 10μ ) films of the polymer blend were prepared by spin coating a 2 wt % toluene solution of blends with different ratios of two r f end functionalized components onto silica wafers ( 0 . 5 × 0 . 5 in . square ) or glass slides . all films were oven dried or annealed at 120 ° c . for 24 h . blends of the corresponding homopolymers lacking the r f end groups were also prepared and studied . the optical transmittance of the films cast from toluene solution of ps / pbma and r f - ps / r f - pbma on cover pyrex glass was measured by uv / vis spectrometry . as seen in fig2 , from 350 - 1000 nm the blend of the r f modified polymers had much greater transmittance than its conventional ps / pbma blend that shows light scattering below 1000 nm . this dramatic difference suggests much smaller microdomains for the r f blend . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) of a 1 / 1 blend r f - ps / r f - pbma shown in fig3 shows two tgs corresponding to each of the two polymer components suggesting phase separation . the difference between the two tgs was smaller than that for the homopolymers , showing improved miscibility . atomic force microscopy ( afm ) of the surface topology of the 50 / 50 ( wt / wt ) conventional psipbma blend ( fig4 a , b ) shows a bicontinuous structure , with holes about 30 nm in depth and 250 - 1000 nm in size . afm of the blend surface of r f modified polymers ( c , d ) is much smoother , with more evenly distributed domains of around 300 nm diameter having peculiar looking “ craters ” of about 20 nm in depth and about 100 nm in diameter . the elevated “ crater ” domains are believed to be due to the perfluorocarbon groups that are highly surface - active ( l . h . sperling , introduction to physical polymer science , john wiley & amp ; sons , new jersey , 2006 , 404 , the relevant portions are incorporated herein by reference ). in addition to the above , other otherwise incompatible polymer pairs such as polystyrene - polymethylmethacrylate ( ps - pmma ) and polystyrene - polybutadiene ( ps - pbd ) also show greatly improved compatibility profiles upon end - functionalization with similar perfluorocarbon groups . although the perfluorocarbons are expensive , the fractions needed are very small , amounting to only a few percent . furthermore , with higher molecular weights polymers the percentage should be even smaller . as demonstrated in this example , methods in accordance with the present invention have great applicability for enhanced compatibilization of polymer blends . the r f groups can be introduced in a chemically convenient way , either through the use of perfluorocarbon radical initiators or by using terminating agents , for instance , through anionic - or cationic living polymerizations . the application of these principles to other polymerizations such as metathesis , romp and other chain or step polymerizations will allow many polymer blends to be easily obtained and evaluated . fluorocarbon - mediated blends ( fmbs ) according to this embodiment of the present invention may have applications in refractive index - matching and / or refractive index fine - tuning . the mechanical properties of the r f blends are important in improving impact resistance and toughness . in the previous example , we have described exemplary embodiments of the present invention which formed wholly or partially transparent blends of polymers a and b mediated by perfluorocarbon ( r f ) polymer end groups . these end - functionalized polymers may be generated for both chain and step polymers as well as other polymer types commonly known in the art . for instance , films formed by the physical blending of r f end capped polystyrene ( r f - ps ) and poly ( n - butylmethacrylate ) ( r f - pbma ) ( 1 / 1 , w / w ) having number average molecular weights of about 20 , 000 gives optically transparent blends . the corresponding blends not having r f end groups give only translucent blends . light transmission , differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) and atomic force microscopy ( afm ) of films of these blends indicate that the domain sizes of the individual polymer domains compared to the unmodified blends have decreased appreciably from microns to nanometers (& lt ; 350 μm ) ( fig1 ). the corresponding polystyrene / polymethylmethacrylate ( ps - r f / r f - pmma ) blends show similar properties . this phenomenon is driven by strong mutual (“ fluorophilic ”) interactions between r f groups of the two polymers giving r f micelles . such interactions occur in both aqueous and non aqueous solvents ( e . g ., dioxane and methanol ) and in the solid state ( see references 1 - 7 , the relevant portions of these references are incorporated herein ). the extent and nature of micellization for r f functionalized polymers in solution or the solid state depends on a number of well documented factors that include : 1 . r f length relative to polymer mass . thus the degree of micellization may be adjusted by variation by both r f - size or polymer mass . 2 . position of the r f group with respect to the rest of the molecule . for instance , we have unexpectedly discovered that r f end groups associate more effectively than pendent groups . [ 5 - 7 ] however the fraction of pendent r f groups may be varied more conveniently by copolymerization with r f vinyl monomers at nearly constant polymer mass . [ 1 - 4 ] furthermore “ spacer ” groups ( fig5 ) between the r f group and the polymer backbone will strongly promote the formation of r f micelles by reducing polymer - polymer excluded volume effects . [ 2 , 5 - 7 ] polymer r f micelles are capable of interacting with r f surfactants to give mixed micelles the formation of which is driven by the same fluorophilic interactions . the same principle also applies to small molecules with r f groups bearing additional functionalities ( i . e . chromophores , catalysts , etc .) to give mixed micelles in solution or in the solid state ( fig5 ). thus , as shown by fluorescence and uv / vis . absorption measurements , fluorophilic interactions of r f chromophores give rise to effective adsorption of r f pyrene derivatives on surfaces of partially fluorinated polymer films has been demonstrated [ 8 , 9 ]. the exemplary embodiments disclosed in this example generally involve the role of the r f functionalized molecules located in the r f micellar domains at the polymer - a - r f / r f - polymer - b ( i . e . ps - r f / r f - pbma ) ( fig5 ). regardless of the precise shape of these micelles , the functionalized molecules must be in close proximity to both polymer domains . this spatial control of functionalized molecules relative to the polymer a / b interface is of conceptual interest and has ramifications in several areas including organic light emitting diodes ( oled &# 39 ; s ) and / or light harvesting , chromatography and catalysis . thermal , optical , and atomic force microscopy ( afm ) measurements have shown that polystyrene ( ps ) and polybutylmethacrylate ( pbma ) endowed with c 7 f 15 ( or other perfluorocarbon groups ) at the chain end ( ps - r f / pbma - r f ) give much better blends ( see above ). this is due to the formation of perfluorocarbon micelles that reduce the sizes of the ps and pbma domains through fluorophilic interactions and render such polymer domains smaller and far more regular i . e . spherical ( fig3 ). [ 1 , 2 ] afm and other studies of ps - r f / r f - pbma films indicate that the perfluorocarbon micelles should be located at the ps / pbma interfaces ( fig5 and 6 ) and should also be present at the surface of these polymer blend films as the perfluorocarbon domains are highly surface active . as indicated above , the surface of these blends is dominated by “ craters ” demonstrated to correlate with the presence of r f micells / domains present at the surface ( fig3 ). it is envisioned that this will be useful in column chromatography carried out on organic fluorine compounds ( ofc &# 39 ; s ), for instance , pharmaceuticals containing fluorine , cf 3 ( or other r f groups ). using small particles ( silica , glass , etc .) coated with thin layers of r f containing polymers or polymer blends , the presence of the r f domains at the surface should physically bind the fluorine atoms or fluorocarbon groups of the ofc &# 39 ; s and this has been shown to occur [ 1 , 1 ]. the functionalities such as h bond donors ( oh or cooh ) or - acceptors ( nh 2 , nr 2 ) present on the polymer or polymer blends interacting with functional groups of the ofc &# 39 ; s , for instance , through hydrogen bonding and / or other physicochemical interactions . it is further envisioned that the presence of these additional chemical functionalities on the a and / or b polymers may be easily introduced through vinyl copolymerization and will further enhance chromatographic separations . fig8 shows an exemplary chromatographic column in accordance with the present invention . a chromatographic column of the present invention generally includes a hollow tubular body 81 having a first end 82 and a second end 83 . a fluorocarbon mediated polymer blend of the present invention 84 is disposed inside the hollow body . fig9 shows a detailed view of the fluorocarbon mediated polymer blend 84 which has craters 91 at an interface between two or more interacting r f functionalities . these interacting r f functionalities are exposed through the crater and are available to interact with an analyte solution . it is envisioned that the presence of r f - functionalized chromophores in an a / b polymer interface will be applicable to organic light emitting diodes ( oled &# 39 ; s ) and / or light harvesting applications . as shown schematically in fig7 , the r f lamellae present at the interface of the hole -( a ) and electron conducting ( b ) polymers contain the r f functionalized chromophores . in the absence of the r f interface the chromophores would be distributed more or less randomly over both polymer domains or selectively depending on the chromophore solubilities in the a and b domains . in case that the presence of the r f chromophore in one of the two domains , say b , is preferred this can be addressed , for instance , by inclusion of a fraction of pendent r f groups in the b polymer . catalysts increase the rate of a given reaction by lowering the activation energy barrier between the reactants and the products . in molecular terms , one way to accomplish this is to increase the probability of the reactants meeting each other , preferably in the orientation conducive to reaction . in this regard , it is envisioned that fmbs of the present invention may be applied to catalysis . for example , physical binding of two different r f compounds ( c and d ) with x and y reactive groups respectively to the surface of particles coated with thin films of polymer - a - r f / r f - polymer - b may act as a site for catalysis . the r f surfaces to which both compounds c and b should bind should lead to enhanced reaction rates . we have shown binding of c 7 f 15 - functionalized pyrenes to the surface of ps - r f / r f - pbma films . [ 9 ] additional chemical functionalities , z , ( proton donors , - acceptors , hydrocarbons etc .) may be incorporated through vinyl copolymerization ( or chemical conversion ) into a and / or b polymers . these help in binding ( i . e . hydrophobic or h bonding ) one of the desired reagents , c , which lacks the r f group , to the surface of the film where the x group of c would react with the y group of the r f compound ( d ). more interestingly additional chemical functionalities z ( bases , acids , hydrocarbons ) may be covalently bonded to a and / or b polymers ( one of which preferably will populate the polymer surface ) that bind ( i . e hydrophobic interactions ) one of the desired compounds , c , which lacks the r f group , to the surface of the film where it would react with the y group of r f compound ( d ). in this embodiment , it is envision that fmb of the present invention may be utilized for detection of analytes such as biological compounds containing r f ( e . g . cf 3 and others ) functionalized chromophores . when such an analyte is bound to the surface of a film or beads comprising r f groups through fluorophilic interactions and in the presence of a strongly bound ( covalent or fluorophilic ) chromophore susceptible to fluorescent resonance energy transfer ( fret ) between the analyte chromophore and the fmb - bound chromophore , the presence of the analyte may be detected . although the present invention has been described in terms of specific exemplary embodiments and examples , it will be appreciated that the embodiments disclosed herein are for illustrative purposes only and various modifications and alterations might be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims . 1 . 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