Properties of (meth)acrylate copolymer grafted with long fluorinated side chain prepared by “graft onto” strategy

A (meth)acrylate copolymer grafted with long fluorinated side chains (AGLF) was synthesized successfully through a two-step procedure. First, a carboxyl terminated fluoropolymer, poly(2,2,3,4,4,4-hexafluorobutyl methacrylate) was synthesized by conventional radical polymerization in the presence of 3-mercaptopropionic acid as chain transfer agent. And then the fluoropolymer was grafted to the in-house synthesized polyacrylate (MMA -r- BA -r- GMA). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and 1 H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were employed to verify the synthesis of AGLF. Moreover, the surface properties were investigated by contact angle measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results proved that a small amount of poly(2,2,3,4,4,4-hexafluorobutyl methacrylate) addition can create a hydrophobic surface effectively. Furthermore, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed that it is the AGLF grafted with longer fluorinated side chain that have more fluorine atoms enriched on the surface and thus performed better hydrophobicity and lipophobicity. Testified by thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, it was found that AGLF films have excellent thermal properties. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135 , 45894.