Branching by reactive end groups. II. Synthesis,branching, and melt rheology of (meth)acrylate/p‐t‐butylphenol‐coterminated bisphenol a polycarbonates

(Meth)acrylate/p‐t‐butylphenol (PTBP)‐coterminated bisphenol A polycarbonates (PCs) were prepared by interfacial processes and subsequently were reacted at high temperatures (≥200 °C) to form new branched polymers. Two interfacial methods were used to prepare the precursor linear PCs, one with (meth)acryloyl chloride (M)AC] and the other with (meth)acrylic acid (M)AA]. Both processes involve phosgenation in the presence of catalytic amounts of triethylamine. The process that used (M)AC formed disproportionately large amounts of bisphenol A di(meth)acrylate, whereas the process using (M)AA required about 50% more phosgene to achieve high (M)AA conversions than typical interfacial PC processes. The branching of the acrylate/PTBP PCs occurred with heating at temperatures greater than or equal to 250 °C. The molecular weight and degree of branching depended on the mole ratio of the thermally reactive and nonreactive coterminators, the total amount of coterminators, and the reaction conditions. The functionality of the branch points formed appeared to be dependent on the acrylate concentration. The branching of the methacrylate/PTBP PCs required the presence of a free‐radical initiator and temperatures up to about 200 °C. The methacrylate end group was less effective than the acrylate on a molar basis in increasing the branched polymer molecular weight and degree of branching. The melt rheology of the branched acrylate/PTBP PCs showed the expected increase in low shear viscosity and shear rate sensitivity with increasing weight‐average molecular weight and acrylate‐end‐group concentration. Small changes in the total terminator concentration and, therefore, the linear precursor polymer molecular weight produced large effects in the low shear rate melt viscosity. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 2340–2351, 2000