Polymer Modification

Polymer modification refers to the chemical manipulation of polymers to improve their properties such as reactivity, thermal stability, biological resistance, compatibility, physical impact response, flexibility, rigidity, etc. Polymer modification is related to many fields, including materials science, engineering, physics, biochemistry, and medicine. Not long after the introduction of click chemistry first attempts were undertaken to apply its advantages to modified polymers. The application of click chemistry in polymer modification provides a new method for the fabrication of multi-purpose materials^[1].

Applications

• Polymer modification by CuAAC click reaction

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has superior mechanical and physical properties, and high chemical and abrasion resistance. However, it is easily decomposed by photochemistry due to structural anomalies and defects generated during the manufacturing process. To overcome this weakness, UV absorbent chemical compounds are usually formulated with PVC by physical mixing for inhibiting its photo-degradation. Huang et al^[2]. reporteda copper (I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) click reaction to install UV-absorber benzophenone groups onto azidated-PVC (Scheme 1). It was shown that benzophenone-immobilized PVC is compatible with unmodified polymers and stabilizes PVC against photodegradation for up to 200 h UV-irradiation.

Scheme 1. PVC modification by CuAAC click reaction to install UV-absorber groups.

• Polymer modification by SuFEx click reaction

In addition to CuAAC click reaction, an attracting one-step strategy for PVC surface modification by combining SuFEx click reaction and benzophenone photochemistry reaction was reported. By taking the advantage of UV-mediated tethering of benzophenone groups onto PVC polymer chains, a series of functional groups were successfully installed on the polymer surface (Scheme 2)^[3]. The strategy features one-pot coupling of sulfonyl fluoride group present on benzophenone derivative with various silyl ethers containing functional molecules.

Scheme 2. One-pot surface modification of PVC by the combination
of SuFEx click reaction and benzophenone photochemistry.

What Can We Do?

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References

1. Arslan, M.; et al. The emerging applications of click chemistry reactions in modification of industrial polymers. Polymer Chemistry. 2019, 28(10): 3806-3821.
2. Zhong, H.; et al. Construction of nontoxic polymeric UV-absorber with great resistance to UV-photoaging. Scientific Reports. 2016.
3. Liu, W.; et al. A rapid one-step surface functionalization of polyvinyl chloride by combining click sulfur (VI)-fluoride exchange with benzophenone photochemistry. Chemical Communications. 2019, 55: 858-861.