Copolymerization of Styrene and Methyl Methacrylate with Lithium as Initiator

Copolymers of styrene and methyl methacrylate prepared with lithium dispersion as initiator do not contain random sequences of both monomers. Fractionation of the copolymers with acetonitrile and the NMR spectra of the insoluble fractions show that these are block copolymers which consist of a polystyrene portion and a poly(methyl methacrylate) portion. When the copolymerization is stopped at low conversion the copolymer has a high styrene content, which sometimes exceeds the value expected for radical copolymerization. This fact would indicate that styrene is preferentially polymerized at the early stages of chain propagation. When the copolymerization is carried to high conversion some crosslinked polymer is formed which contains more styrene than the soluble part of the same experiment. When a piece of metallic lithium is used as initiator, it is found that the crosslinked polymer is formed on the surface of the metal. The addition of lithium phenoxide or β‐naphthoxide to the system eliminates the formation of crosslinked polymer. A possible mechanism is proposed.