Manufacturing of polystyrene panels with tunable colors

In this thesis, the synthesis of commercial polystyrene panels containing polyamine and polycarboxylic acid functional grafts, that capable of reversible metal complexation with transition metals, has been introduced. To obtain the polymeric ligands on the surface of panels, surface initiated photo-iniferter polymerization(SI-PMP) was employed. For this purpose, the macroiniferter functionality was developed on the surface of commercial polystyrene panels by using two different pathways. In the first route (method A), polystyrene was rendered reactive by reaction with chlorosulfonic acid [1]. Thereafter, the surface was modified by reaction with diethanol amine and methane sulfonyl chloride, respectively. By further reaction, mesyl groups were substituted to give N,N'-diethyldithiocarbamyl groups, which acts as photoiniferter. Each modified panel was characterized by FTIR. As a second methodology (method B), 4-vinyl benzyl chloride (VBC) was polymerized and modified with sodium N,N'-diethyldithiocarbamate salt. The characterization of the polymers was carried out by the usage of NMR. The obtained iniferter functional polymer was coated onto polystyrene panels. Afterwards, N-vinyl formamide(NVF), methacrylic acid(MAA) and glycidylmethacrylate(GMA) were individually grafted on the surface of polystyrene panels, prepared by method A and B, to use as SI-PMP. Surprisingly, polymerization of NVF from surface iniferter groups was not successful. The reason is ambiguous yet. However, PGMA and PMAA brushes were successfully generated on the panel surface. The brushed consisting of PGMA were converted to amine functional grafts via ring opening reaction by action with triethylenetetramine (TETA). The surface grafts so obtained were employed for reversible complex formation with metal ions. To determine the surface topologies of each panel, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) were used. In order to obtain visible color changes, the surface was grafted with dense polymeric ligands. The metals involving in surface metal complexes were eluated by action of aqua acid and base treatments. In this process, immediate fading of the colors was observed. Thereafter, the different color will be obtained if the panels are soaked into another metal ion solution. The process presented successfully fabricated commercial polystyrene panels with tunable colors.