AUTHOR=Koiry Bishnu P. , Singha Nikhil K. 

TITLE=Copper mediated controlled radical copolymerization of styrene and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate and determination of their reactivity ratios

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=2

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2014.00091

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2014.00091

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>Copolymerization is an important synthetic tool to prepare polymers with desirable combination of properties which are difficult to achieve from the different homopolymers concerned. This investigation reports the copolymerization of 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA) and styrene using copper bromide (CuBr) as catalyst in combination with N,N,N′,N″,N″- pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) as ligand and 1-phenylethyl bromide (PEBr) as initiator. Linear kinetic plot and linear increase in molecular weights vs. conversion indicate that copolymerization reactions were controlled. The copolymer composition was calculated using <sup>1</sup>H NMR studies. The reactivity ratio of styrene and EHA (r<sub>1</sub> and r<sub>2</sub>) were determined using the Finemann–Ross (FR), inverted Finemann–Ross (IFR), and Kelen–Tudos (KT) methods. Thermal properties of the copolymers were also studied by using TGA and DSC analysis.</p>