Grafting of Polystyrene and Poly(sodium styrene sulfonate) on the Surface of Poly(vinylidene fluoride) via Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization: Synthesis and Characterization

Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) is a beneficial technique for the preparation and design of multifunctional and nanostructured materials for a variety of applications. Macromolecular structure, order and functionality are of the most important factors and considerations in polymer science and ATRP enables precise control over these factors. This method aids synthesizing novel engineering polymeric materials which play an absolutely essential role in all aspects of our lives and there is a “must” to develop new and green methods to synthesize and produce novel materials as best as we can. In this research, we have synthesized novel graft copolymers of PVDF-g-PS and PVDF-g-PSSA via ATRP which have a variety of applications from membranes to Li-Ion batteries. These materials can be used to enhance the properties of Li-ion batteries’ separator operation. The characterization of the final copolymers was performed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) analyses. The grafting percentages obtained from 1H-NMR analyses are reported to be 2%, 13% and 44% for PVDF-g-PS (I), PVDF-g-PS (II) and PVDF-g-PSSA copolymer samples, respectively.