Preparation of Crosslinked Poly(2-bromoethyl methacrylate) Microspheres and Decoration of Their Surfaces with Functional Polymer Brushes

Synthesis and crosslinking copolymerization of 2‐bromoethylmethacrylate in aqueous suspension is described for preparing bromoalkyl‐functional microbeads (125–420 µm). Highly transparent microspheres with a density of accessible bromoethyl groups of 1.55 mmol · g−1 were prepared in the suspension, stabilized with poly(N‐vinyl pyrrolidone), by using methyl methacrylate as diluting co‐monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker. Bromoalkyl groups on the microparticles were employed as initiation sites for either surface‐initiated ATRP of glycidyl methacrylate or ring‐opening polymerization of 2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline to generate epoxy‐ and N‐acetylethyleneimine‐functional hairy grafts, tethered to the particle surfaces with hydrolytically stable linkages. A suspension polymerization procedure is described for preparing bromoalkyl‐functional microspheres by crosslinking copolymerization of 2‐bromoethyl methacrylate with MMA and EGDMA. The bromoethyl groups on the microspheres were employed for surface‐initiated ATRP of GMA and ROP of 2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline to create epoxy‐ and amino‐functional dense surface grafts (420 and 65%).