Morphology and grafting of oxazoline‐functional polymer particles with various carboxylic acids

Oxazoline-functionalized, crosslinked PMMA-particles, prepared by free radical nonaqueous dispersion polymerization, were grafted with n-decanoic acid and carboxylic acid-terminated polystyrene. Oxazoline groups, separated by an alkylspacer from the PMMA backbone, showed enhanced mobility with respect to the backbone, as evaluated by solid-state NMR spectroscopy using a dipolar filter. As a function of molecular mass of the carboxylic acid, the oxazoline conversion varied from 70 mol % for n-decanoic acid to 1% for monocarboxylate-terminated polystyrene CT-PS with Mn: 15,900 g/mol. Morphological studies, performed by TEM, showed that reaction with acid terminated polystyrene results exclusively in interfacial grafting at the particle surface. At low grafting levels a raspberry-like morphology was obtained, whereas grafting levels exceeding 14 wt % CT-PS resulted in core-shell morphology. Core-shell morphology was also verified by static light scattering using toluene solvent, which is isorefractive to the PMMA core. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 36: 1821–1827, 1998