Preparation, characterization, and thermal behavior of MMA–N‐aryl maleimide copolymers

Abstract

AbstractThe work describes the synthesis and characterization of copolymers of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and N‐o‐tolyl maleimide (MO)/N‐p‐tolyl maleimide (MP)/4‐maleimido benzoic acid (MB). The copolymers were synthesized by varying the mol fraction of N‐aryl maleimides from 0.1 to 0.5 in the initial feed using azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator and tetrahydrofuran as the solvent. The copolymer composition was determined from the 1H‐NMR spectra by taking the ratio of proton resonance signals due to OCH3 of MMA (δ=3.59 ppm) and the aromatic protons (δ=7.0–7.3 ppm) of N‐aryl maleimides. The monomer reactivity ratios of MMA–MP were r1=0.926±0.001 and r2=0.47±0.03 and MMA–;MO were r1=1.37±0.005 and r2=0.31±0.01. The initial decomposition temperature of copolymers and glass transition temperatures increased with increasing N‐aryl maleimide content in the backbone. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.