Peroxide-initiated crosslinking of maleic anhydride-modified low-molecular-weight polybutadiene. I. Mechanism and kinetics of the reaction

The crosslinking mechanism and kinetics of low-molecular-weight polybutadiene, its mixtures with maleic anhydride, and the products of its grafting with maleic anhydride and styrene, using dicumyl peroxide (DCP) as an initiator, were studied. It was shown that for all systems crosslinking is a radical polymerization of the double bonds. Modification of polybutadiene changes only the kinetic parameters of the crosslinking reaction and causes mainly a decrease of the termination step velocity. From DSC data the crosslinking reaction order, activation energy, and reaction heats were calculated.