Copolymerization of Styrene and Methyl Methacrylate Mediated by Copper (0)/2,2′-Bipyridine in the Presence and Absence of Phenol

Abstract

In this work, we reported the synthesis of random copolymers of P(MMA-co-styrene) via single electron transfer-living radical polymerization (SET LRP) using ethyl 2-bromoisobutyrate and Cu(0)/2,2′-bipyridine as initiator and catalyst combination, respectively. The polymerization took place in the presence of phenol at 25°C. The kinetics results showed that the copolymerization is first order kinetics. The molecular weights increased linearly with the increasing of monomer conversion with a narrow polydispersity index, and the copolymerization rate increased in the presence of phenol. In additional, solvent also has a profound effect on the polymerization. The chain extension experiment demonstrated that the copolymerization exhibited a characteristic of living. The obtained random copolymer was characterized by FTIR, ¹H-NMR and GPC.

Keywords:

• Styrene
• methyl methacrylate
• living polymerization
• SET LRP
• additive