Synthesis and assessment of the effect of monomer feed ratio and Lewis acids on copolymerization of butyl methacrylate/۱-octene

This study was designed to investigate the effect of molar ratio of ۱-octene and type as well as concentration of Lewis acids on the free radical copolymerization of butyl methacrylate (BMA) with ۱-octene. The synthesized copolymers have been substantially described by FTIR, ۱H NMR, GPC and DSC. The quantitative ۱H NMR and GPC demonstrated that by increase in the molar ratio of ۱-octene and Lewis acids to BMA, the incorporation of ۱-octene in the copolymer backbone enhanced, Mn reduced and polydispersity became narrower. The maximum incorporation of ۱-octene (۱۳.۷%) was observed for sample CSC۷ having [۱-octene/BMA] of ۳ mol% and [AlCl۳/BMA] of ۱.۵ mol%. The DSC results confirmed the NMR and GPC outcomes, suggesting a decrease in Tg by increasing ۱-octene in the copolymer backbone. Moreover, it is found that temperature has a remarkable influence on the copolymerization behavior. The results also showed that by substituting the acrylate monomer from butyl methacrylate to butyl acrylate, the incorporation of ۱-octene increased.

Keywords:

copolymerization , Butyl methacrylate , ۱-octene , monomer incorporation , Lewis acid