A Novel Route to Graft-Copolymers with Tailored Structures for the Compatibilization of Polymeric Blend

A new method to synthesize graft-copolymers based on isotactic polypropylene (iPP) with tailored structure has been developed. The synthesis is a two-step process: synthesis of P-co-(p-MS-E) copolymers, by using ansa-metallocene catalysts, and metallation of p-Me groups followed by living anionic polymerisation for the graft growth. This method turn out to be versatile because, by changing experimental conditions, in the first step backbones with a tuned number of the graft growth sites and polypropylene lengths can be obtained, whereas in the second step, graft chains of different types and lengths can be synthesized. The particular ability of these copolymers to compatibilize polymeric blends was evaluated analyzing the morphology of the products copolymers/blends by using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM).