Study on the activity difference of macromonomers for preparing polycarboxylic superplasticizers

Polycarboxylic superplasticizers produced by polyether macromonomers have attracted widely attention recently. Polyether macromonomers can be divided into vinyl ether-based and vinyl alcohol-based macromonomers according to the starting agents (vinyl ether and vinyl alcohol, respectively). In this study, three vinyl ether-based macromonomers were synthesized to compare with vinyl alcohol-based macromonomers that commonly used at present. It was found that the three vinyl ether-based macromonomers all can be copolymerized at lower reaction temperature (5 °C) and shorter reaction time (30–45 min) when the same reaction conversion ratio was achieved. To better explain the high activity of vinyl ether-based macromonomers, the molecular structure of different polyether macromonomers was calculated. The results show that the electron cloud on the CC double bond of vinyl ether-based macromonomers exhibits more obvious deflection because of the direct connection with the oxygen atom, which makes it more easily to copolymerize with acrylic acid. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137 , 48844.