Organotin polymers—III: Copolymerization and terpolymerization of tributyltin acrylate with methyl methacrylate,propyl methacrylate,butyl methacrylate and acrylonitrile

Copolymerizations of tri-n-butyltin acrylate (M₁) with (a) methyl methacrylate (M₂), (b) propyl methacrylate (M₃), (c) butyl methacrylate (M₄) and (d) acrylonitrile (M₅) in solution at 70 using AIBN as initiator led to monomer reactivity ratios as follows: (a) r₁ = 0.401 and r₂ = 2.199, (b) 0.323 and 1.713, (c) 0.196 and 1.65, and (d) 0.243 and 1.008. The variation of the average copolymer composition with conversion for two copolymers from M₁ with M₂ and M₄ were calculated and verified experimentally. Four terpolymer compositions involving M₁ and M₅ with M₂ or M₄ were prepared and the terpolymer compositions were calculated on the basis of tin and nitrogen analyses. The variations of instantaneous and average terpolymer composition with conversion fit satisfactorily the experimental results over a wide range of conversion.