Influence of the Styrene Ratio on the Copolymerization Kinetics of Dimethacrylate of Diglycidyl Ether of Bisphenol a Vinylester Resins Crosslinked with Styrene

Abstract

Infrared spectroscopy was used in this work to investigate the copolymerization characteristics of systems based on a dimethacrylate of diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A combined with styrene in variable proportions ranging from 25 to 60% by weight. Particular attention has been paid to determination of the theoretical monomer sequence distributions obtained from copolymerization theory. The results show that the final structure of these materials is probably diphasic, with a first phase consisting of a vinylester network and a second phase rich in polystyrene. The influence of the monomer sequence distribution on the final crosslink density has been evaluated.

Key Words:

• Vinylester matrix
• Methyl methacrylate
• Styrene
• Copolymerization kinetics
• Sequence distribution
• Crosslink density