Low surface energy polymers and surface active block polymers. I. t‐butylphenyl containing polymers

Two new monomers in the 2‐oxazoline series were synthesized and polymerized. These were 2‐[4‐(t‐butyl)phenyl]‐2‐oxazoline (I) and 2‐[(3‐(3,5‐di‐t‐butyl)phenoxy)propyl]‐2‐oxazoline (II). The polymer from I crystallized readily during bulk polymerization and showed Tm at 592 K (319°C). After annealing, the polymer showed a critical surface tension of 23.2 dyn/cm. Polymer from II was amorphous; hence, annealing showed little effect on contact angles. Block polymers were made with I (Xn = 10) and ethyl oxazoline (Xn = 6,20,60). Very sharp molecular weight distributions were obtained. All samples crystallized when annealed. The block polymer was an effective emulsifier for emulsion polymerization of butyl acrylate at 0.1%.