Synthesis of novel nanoreinforcements for polymer matrices by ATRP: Triblock poly(rotaxan)s based in polyethyleneglycol end-caped with poly(methyl methacrylate)

Poly(rotaxan)s of poly(ethylene glycol) and α-cyclodextrines (CD) block copolymers end-capped with poly(methyl methacrylate) chains were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization. The synthesized copolymers were characterized by 1H NMR, 2D NOESY NMR, X-ray and Thermogravimetric analysis. Assuming a maximum relation of 2 CDs per ethyleneglycol unit, a coverage degree of 18% and 15% was achieved. X-ray analysis showed a characteristic signal around 20θ for all copolymers with an amorphous halo mainly due to inter-crystal poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(methyl methacrylate) chains. Full Molecular Dynamics of 20 ns was used to simulate the crystal structure of these copolymers. A pair correlation function was used to determine the coupling between hydrogen atoms of PEG, PMMA and cyclodextrine obtained by 2D NOESY NMR This work was supported by Comunidad de Madrid (CAM project: S-0505/MAT/0227) and CICYT (project: MAT2007-63722). The authors would like to thank Dr. Berta Herrero.