AMPHIPHILIC GRAFT-COPOLYMERS - PREPARATION AND INTERFACIAL PROPERTIES

Amphiphilic graft copolymers containing poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) gra fts have been prepared by various methods, for example, by coupling of reactive hydrophobic backbone polymers with end-functionalised PEO, b y macromonomer copolymerisation, and by anionic graft polymerisation o f EO onto polymer backbones carrying functional groups as initiator pr ecursors. The graft copolymers are amphiphilic and were shown to accum ulate at surfaces and interfaces in solution and in the solid state. A mphiphilic starch derivatives were prepared by reaction of amylose and starch with aliphatic alpha-epoxides.