Studies on Synthesis and Characterization of Charge Transfer Polymerization of Styrene and Alkyl Methacrylates

Abstract

Copolymers involving styrene and homologues of alkyl methacrylates (viz., methyl, ethyl, and butyl methacrylates) were synthesized at 60°C by employing a mixture of n‐butylamine and carbontetrachloride as charge transfer (CT) initiators in dimethyl sulphoxide medium. The CT complex was characterized by UV spectroscopy while the respective copolymers were characterized by employing infrared (IR) and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The copolymer compositions were determined by using ¹H NMR spectroscopy and the reactivity ratios were computed by Fineman–Ross (F–R) and Kelen–Tudos (K–T) methods. The reactivity ratios of Sty‐MMA and Sty‐EMA copolymers indicate that higher level of styrene is incorporated in the copolymer. On the other hand the Sty‐BMA system exhibits different behavior. The higher value of r ₂ is obtained denoting that BMA is more active than styrene and hence, more BMA is present in the copolymer chain. In Sty‐MMA and Sty‐BMA systems, the product of r ₁ and r ₂ is greater than 1, representing the formation of high degree of random copolymers. However, in the case of Sty‐EMA, the product of r ₁ and r ₂ is less than 1 indicating the formation of alternating copolymer.