Kinetics for copolymerization of methyl methacrylate with N-cyclohexylmaleimide

✍ Scribed by Xulin Jiang; Hongyun Tai; Ping Xia; Deyue Yan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 130 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19991031)74:5<1293::aid-app27>3.0.co;2-f

✦ Synopsis

The kinetics for the radical copolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) with N-cyclohexylmaleimide (NCMI) was investigated. The initial copolymerization rate R p is proportional to the initiator concentration to the power of 0.54. The apparent activation energy of the overall copolymerization was measured to be 69.0 kJ/mol. The monomer reactivity ratios were determined to be r NCMI ϭ 0.42 and r MMA ϭ 1.63. R p reduces slightly, and the molecular weight of the resultant copolymer decreases with increasing the concentration of the chain transfer agent N-dodecanethiol (RSH). The more the transfer agent, the narrower the molecular weight distribution of the resulting copolymer. The following chain-transfer constant of RSH for the copolymerization of MMA with NCMI in benzene at 50°C was obtained: C s ϭ 0.23. The glass transition temperature (T g ) of the copolymer increases with increasing f NCMI , which indicates that adding NCMI can improve the heat resistance of Plexiglas.