Synthesis and characterization of novel graft copolymers including castor oil

In this thesis, castor oil (CO) was exposed to air under sunlight at room temperature in order to obtain polymeric castor oil peroxide (PCO). Since PCO has both peroxide groups and hydroxyl groups were used by free radical polymerization and the ring-opening polymerization. In the first part of the study, PCO-g-PtBA graft copolymers were obtained by free radical polymerization with using PCO and tertiary butyl acrylate (tBA) monomer. In the second part of the study, PCO-g-PCL graft copolymers were obtained via ring-opening polymerization method by reacting PCO, ε-caprolactone (CL) and in the presence of tin (II) ethyl-hexanoate. In the last part of the study, PCO-g-PCL-g-PtBA graft copolymers were synthesized using free radical polymerization and ring-opening polymerization simultaneously. The all graft copolymers obtained were characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques.