The thermal depolymerization of polystyrene. V. Styrene — stilbene copolymers

In order to test whether the weak links in polystyrene are head to head linkages, copolymers of styrene and stilbene were prepared. The stilbene content of these copolymers was measured using radiochemical techniques involving tritium labelled stilbene and the reactivity of the styrene molecule shown to be approximately 11 times that of the stilbene molecule towards the polystyryl radical. The presence of stilbene units in polystyrene chains does not significantly affect the degradation properties from which it follows that head to head structures do not constitute weak links in polystyrene.