Radiation-Induced Copolymerization of Thiophene with Maleic Anhydride

Radiation-induced copolymerization of thiophene with maleic anhydride has been studied. On the copolymerization in chloroform solution, the effects of dose rate, polymerization temperature, and, monomer composition and concentration on the yield and molecular weight of the copolymer were determined. The copolymerization proceeds via a radical mechanism with bimolecular termination of propagating polymer radicals, and the apparent activation energy is 5.3 kcal/mole. By NMR spectroscopy of copolymer, it was also found that these monomers copolymerize alternately to give a copolymer having structure I. In this copolymerization, the higher initial rates were obtained at an equimolar composition of monomers and by using solvents containing chlorine, such as CC1₄, CHC1₃, and C₆H₅C1.