Principles of Polymerization || Chain Copolymerization

✍ Scribed by Odian, George

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 571 KB
• Edition: (electronic bk.)0471274003
• Category: Article
• ISBN-13: 9780471478751
• DOI: 10.1002/047147875x.ch6

✦ Synopsis

For most step polymerizations, for example, in the synthesis of poly(hexamethylene adipamide) or poly(ethylene terephthalate), two reactants or monomers are used in the process, and the polymer obtained contains two different kinds of structures in the chain. This is not the case for chain polymerizations, where only one monomer need be used to produce a polymer. However, chain polymerizations can be carried out with mixtures of two monomers to form polymeric products wiht two different structures in the polymer chain. This type of chain polymerization process in which two monomers are simultaneously polymerized is termed a copolymerization, and the product is a copolymer. It is important to stress that the copolymer is not an alloy of two homopolymers but contains units of both monomers incorporated into each copolymer molecule. The process can be depicted as