Abstract
A systematic study of the terpolymerization of butyl acrylate/methyl methacrylate/vinyl acetate (BA/MMA/VAc) is being conducted. In the first stage of this study, bulk copolymerizations of BA/MMA, BA/VAc and MMA/VAc were performed. The polymers produced were characterized for conversion, composition and molecular weight. For the vinyl acetate-containing copolymerizations, during the first period of the reaction the acrylic monomer virtually ‘homopolymerized’ and thus the reaction exhibited the characteristics of a ‘solution’ polymerization with the vinyl acetate acting as the ‘solvent’. Typical solution polymerization behaviour, i.e. a dampened autoacceleration or gel effect, was in evidence for the first period of the reaction. After the virtual depletion of the acrylic monomer, the remaining vinyl acetate polymerized and exhibited its own characteristic gel effect. We refer to this phenomenon as the ‘double gel effect’. Estimates of the copolymerization reactivity ratios were calculated and were found to predict copolymer composition accurately through the full conversion range for each copolymer system. Extremely high-molecular-weight polymer was produced attesting to the high degree of branching in these copolymer systems.
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