Combining Renewable Ethyl Cellulose and Acrylate to Fabricate Sustainable TPEs via Controlled Polymerization

A series of ethyl cellulose (EC) grafted copolymers were fabricated with methyl methacrylate (MMA), stearyl methacrylate (SMA) and EC grafted 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide(EC-Br) as macroinitiator via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The chemical structures of EC-Br and EC graft copolymers were identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H NMR) spectroscopy. The EC graft copolymers exhibited higher molecular weight and polydispersity index value. With the dosage of SMA increased, EC grafted copolymers exhibited glass transition temperatures in a broad temperature range from 119.1 to 42.3 ℃. And the initial decomposition temperature ( T i ) of EC grafted copolymers were increased (148.2 ℃ to 199.4 ℃). The stresses at break of EC grafted copolymers were decreased with the increase of SMA content. However, the elongation at break of all EC grafted copolymers were increased with the dosage of MMA decreased. These results suggested that the sustainable copolymers with cellulose backbone, acrylate side-chain were potential candidates for service as TPEs in some applications. Graphic Abstract