Grafting of Poly(ε-caprolactone) and Poly(ε-caprolactone-b lock-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) from Polymer Microspheres by Ring-Opening Polymerization and ATRP

We report the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ε-caprolactone catalyzed by Al(Et)3 and Al[OCH(CH3)2]3 from lightly cross-linked poly(DVB80-co-HEMA) microspheres. The resulting poly(ε-caprolactone) grafted particles with active propagating ends were converted to macroinitiators for ATRP and used further to graft (dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) to produce microspheres grafted with block copolymer. The ROP of ε-caprolactone from the …