Synthesis and characterization of multi-armed ester-terminated glycidyl azide polymer

In order to attain multi-armed ester-terminated glycidyl azide polymer, different multi-armed hydroxy-terminated polyepichlorohydrins (PECH-OH) were synthesized by the cation opening-ring polymerization of epichlorohydrin using glyceryl alcohol and pentaerythritol as initiators. Then, multi-armed ester-terminated glycidyl azide polymers (GAPE) were obtained by the reactions of esterification and azidonation in succession. The structure and thermal property of GAPEs were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FT-IR), gel permeation in chromatography (GPC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry analysis (TG). The results show that the molecular weights of GAPE-3 and GAPE-4 are 890 and 1260, respectively. The glass transition temperatures of GAPE-3 and GAPE-4 are -55.2°C and -53.9°C, respectively. The thermal decomposition of GAPEs has two stages. The first stage is decomposition of azido and the second stage is decomposition of main chain of polyether.