MICROSTRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF METHACRYLONITRILE STYRENE COPOLYMERS TO OBTAIN REACTIVITY RATIOS

The copolymerization of methacrylonitrile (M) and Styrene (S) at 60-degrees-C in bulk has been studied at low conversion by the use of H-1- and C-13-NMR to examine the copolymer microstructure for copolymer composition and sequence distribution. The penultimate model was found to provide the best description of the polymerization with r(MM) = 0.220, r(SM) = 0.519, r(SS) = 0.241, r(MS) = 0.570. These results have been compared with those found for the corresponding acrylonitrile-styrene copolymerization. (C) 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.