Investigation of thiol‐ene addition reaction on poly(isoprene) under UV irradiation: Synthesis of graft copolymers with “V”‐shaped side chains

Poly(isoprene) (PI) with pendant functional groups was successfully synthesized by thiol‐ene addition reaction under 365 nm UV irradiation, and the functionalized PI was further modified and used to prepare graft copolymers with “V”‐shaped side chains. First, the pendant SCH2CH(OH)CH2OH groups were introduced to PI by thiol‐ene addition reaction between 1‐thioglycerol and double bonds, and the results showed that the addition reaction carried out only on double bonds of 1,2‐addition isoprene units. After the esterification of hydroxyl groups by 2‐bromoisobutyryl bromide, the forming macroinitiator was used to initiate the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of styrene (St) and tert‐butyl acrylate (tBA), and the graft copolymers PI‐g‐PS2 and PI‐g‐PtBA2 or PI‐g‐PAA2 (by hydrolysis of PI‐g‐PtBA2) were obtained, respectively. It was confirmed that the graft density of side chains on PI main chains could be easily controlled by variation of the contents of modified 1,2‐addition isoprene units on PI.