Sabine Schwarz-Barac

Cyclodextrins in Polymer Synthesis: Free Radical Polymerization of a tert-Butylmethacrylate-Cyclodextrin Host–Guest System in Aqueous Medium

The homopolymerization of methylated-β-cyclodextrin (me-β-CD) host–guest compound of tert-butyl methacrylate (1a) is described. We investigated the free radical polymerization of the complexed monomer (1a) and of the free monomer (1) at ambient and high temperature. Poly(tert-butylmethacrylate) synthesized via the cyclodextrin mediated method exhibited number-average molecular weights ranging from 12,000–60,000 g/mol with polydispersities from 1.9–3.1. The polymerizations without cyclodextrin show significantly lower yields in comparison with the cyclodextrin mediated polymerizations. Here, the polymer obtained is colloidal dispersed. At ambient temperature (20°C) no polymerization occurs in the absence of cyclodextrin, whereas, under the same conditions, the homopolymerization of the complexed monomer (1a) leads to polymerization with yields around 75%.