Graft copolymers of maleic anhydrid

Graft copolymers of maleic anhydride onto synthetic and biobasedpolymers have been studied in various fields such as adhesion,polymer blends, and composites [20e23]. Introduction ofmaleic moiety onto the nonpolar backbone has overcome thedisadvantage of compatibility with common polar polymers oradditives. In this study, maleic anhydride was grafted onto TPI as abackbone polymer. A mixture of TPI and maleic anhydride washeated in 1,2-dichlorobenzene to introduce maleic moiety to TPIsuccessfully. In the NMR spectrum of MATPI, characteristic multiplepeaks newly appeared at around 3.0 ppm attributed to acid anhydrides,which were converted from maleic anhydride [24]. Theintroduction ratio of maleic moiety, determined by 1H NMR,increased as a function of feed ratio of maleic anhydride to TPI.Afterwards, the hydrolysis of MATPI was performed under a basiccondition to form maleated trans-1,4-polyisoprene (MTPI), whichwas containing carboxylate groups (Scheme 1).