Methyl methacrylate-N-chlorophenyl maleimide copolymers: Effect of structure on properties

Abstract

The article describes the preparation of cast acrylic sheets by copolymerizing methyl methacrylate (MMA) with varying mole fractions of N-o-chlorophenyl maleimide (OC), N-m-chlorophenyl maleimide (MC), and N-p-chlorophenyl maleimide (PC) using benzoyl peroxide as an initiator. The effect of incorporation of varying mole fraction of N-chlorophenyl maleimides in poly(methyl methacrylate) backbone on the optical, physicomechanical, and thermal properties of cast acrylic sheets were evaluated. Vicat softening temperature, glass transition temperature (Tg) and thermal stability of the copolymers increased with an increase in the maleimide content. The solar transmittance and percentage of transmittance of the copolymer sheets having low mole fractions of N-chlorophenyl maleimides (i.e., 0.025–0.085) were found to be comparable with that of PMMA. Further increase in the comonomer content resulted in a decrease in the percentage of transmittance. Copolymer sheets having low mole fractions of N-chlorophenyl maleimides (0.025–0.108) have tensile strength comparable to that of PMMA, whereas the percentage of elongation decreased. Tensile modulus increased with increasing mole fraction of N-chlorophenyl maleimides. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 68: 527–534, 1998