Syntheses and Polymerization of Unsaturated Dibasic Acid Derivatives

By using azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator, the heterogeneous polymerization of N-acetoxyethyl maleimide (AEMI) in benzene was carried out at 70°C. It was found that the initial rate of the heterogeneous polymerization, Rp was expressed by the eq.(1)._??_(1)where [M] is monomer concentration.The over-all acitivation energy (31.3 kcal/mol) and frequency factor (3.1×1017) so obtained are exceptionally high.The reactivity ratio in the copolymerization of AEMI with VAc, have been determined and the Q and e values were calculated as follows:for AEMI (M1)-VAc (M2)γ1=0.85, γ2=0.25Q1=0.08, e1=0.94Measurements of light scattering were made for two none unfractionated AEMI-polymers prepared by different polymerization conditions. It was found that the molecular weight of above polymer were 1.25×106, 2.86×106, respectively. These results were discussed.