A novel synthetic method for preparing poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)/polystyrene alloy in reactor containing aqueous medium

Considering the defect of solution polymerization of 2,6-dimethylphenol (DMP), the low molecular weight of poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) synthesized in water and difficulty in processing of PPO, a novel one-pot synthetic method for preparing PPO/PS alloy in reactor containing aqueous medium was proposed based on green chemistry. In the presence of styrene, DMP was polymerized to form PPO, and then styrene was in situ polymerized under the initiation of dibenzoyl peroxide (BPO) and dicumyl peroxide (DCP), finally thermodynamically compatible PPO/PS alloy was prepared. It was found that the introduction of styrene during the oxidative polymerization of DMP could increase the molecular weight of PPO. When styrene content was 50 wt%, for the synthesized PPO/PS alloy the yield and the weight-average molecular weight were determined to be 95% and 1.7 × 10⁵ for PPO, 93% and 2.0 × 10⁵ for PS, respectively.