Facile synthesis and applications of polypropylene/polydimethylsiloxane graft copolymer

It is of great significance to synthesize polyolefin/polysiloxane hybrid materials due to their unique combination of crystalline polyolefin segments and semiorganic polysiloxane segments. Herein, we report the syntheses of a novel polypropylene/polydimethylsiloxane (PP-g-PDMS) graft copolymer via the coupling reactions between maleic anhydride-grafted PP and monoaminopropyl-terminated PDMS. The chemical structures of PP-g-PDMS have been characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The correlation between reaction conditions and the structural parameters of PP-g-PDMS has been established. Consequently, the potential applications of resultant PP-g-PDMS were investigated, and the results showed that PP-g-PDMS can serve as an efficient compatibilizer in heterogeneous PP/PDMS blend system and also as an ideal processing aid for high-viscosity PP.