Styrene Copolymerization with Rubber. I. Studies of Polystyrene Grafting to Rubber: Molecular Weight Characteristics of Homopolystyrene Matrix

Styrene copolymerization with rubber initiated by a mixture of peroxides with different thermal stabilities is widely used for preparing HIPS (high impact polystyrene) in industry. Such initiation allows regulation of the process rate at all stages and wide variation of the physical and chemical properties of the material. Full knowledge of qualitative regularities in molecular weight as well as structural parameters of formation of polymer compositions provides grounds for theoretical consideration of the problem of optimal steering reactions of polymer synthesis. However, these data for styrene copolymerization with elastomers in the presence of a peroxide mixture are, for all practical purposes, not available in the literature. This constitutes the subject of this research work.