Quantitative Determination of the Contribution of Charge‐Transfer Complex in the Microemulsion Copolymerization of N‐Butyl Maleimide and Styrene

By using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and pentanol (PTL) as emulsifiers, the oil‐in‐water microemulsion containing N‐butyl maleimide (NBMI, M₁) and styrene (St, M₂) was prepared. The microemulsion copolymerization using potassium persulfate (KPS) as an initiator was investigated. On the basis of kinetic model proposed by SHAN Guo‐Rong, the reactivity ratios of free monomers and the charge‐transfer complex (CTC) in the copolymerization were found to be r₁₂ = 0.0420, r₂₁ = 0.0644, r_1C = 0.00576 and r_2C = 0.00785, respectively. A kinetic treatment based on this model was used to quantitatively estimate the contribution of CTC to the total copolymerization rate in the NBMI/St copolymerization. It was about 17.0–20.0% for a wide range of monomer feed ratios.