Phosphonated Oligoallylamine: Synthesis, Characterization in Water, and Development of Layer by Layer Assembly

The work focuses on the synthesis and layer by layer assembly of oligoallylamine and phosphonated oligoallylamine. The synthesis of oligoallylamine and the phosphonated form have been done by free radical polymerization in aqueous media. This work demonstrated the interest of capillary electrophoresis (CE) to analyze charged oligomers, using very small amounts of samples. Entangled polymer solution CE was used as a size-based separation technique for the characterization of the molar mass distribution using indirect UV detection and calibration based on vinyl pyridine standards. Phosphorus-containing oligoallylamines having a number-average molar mass of 1600 g.mol-1 and a 2.3 polydispersity index were obtained. When combined using the LbL approach, prepared polymers showed an exponential growth regime as demonstrated by FTIR measurements. Furthermore, thermogravimetric analyses of the LbL assembled polymers showed an extraordinary thermal and thermo-oxidative stability.