Benzoyl peroxide‐initiated copolymerization of citronellol and vinyl acetate

The radical copolymerization of citronellol with vinyl acetate (VA) in xylene at 60 ± 0.1 °C for 90 min in the presence of benzoyl peroxide follows ideal kinetics and results in the formation of an alternating copolymer as demonstrated by the values of the reactivity ratios [r1 (VA) = 0.02 and r2 (citronellol) = 0.0002], which have been calculated with the Kelen–Tüdos method. The overall activation energy is computed to be 75 kJ/mol. The IR spectrum of the copolymer shows the presence of bands at 3400 cm−1 due to an alcoholic group and 1750 cm−1 due to a 〉CO group. The values of the Mark–Houwink constants for this copolymer system have been determined with gel permeation chromatography to be α = 0.375 and K = 2.4 × 10−4. The glass‐transition temperature, determined with differential scanning calorimetry, is 68.32 °C. The mechanism has been elucidated.