Reactivity of polar monomers in copolymerization

As a consequence of earlier establishment of electrostatic repulsion between nonterminal polar 1,2‐disubstituted olefins in polymers and like adding monomer, polar methylenic monomers were examined for such an effect. Acrylonitrile was found to exhibit such behavior in at least three systems: styrene–acrylonitrile, α‐methylstyrene–acrylonitrile, and α‐acetoxystyrene–acrylonitrile. Absence of such an effect was shown for methacrylonitrile, methyl acrylate, acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, and crotonic acid. A modified copolymerization equation involving r1, r , and r2 was presented. A convenient means of estimating r1 and r2 in this equation as well as in the ordinary copolymerization equation was shown.