Preliminary study of cationic copolymerization of α-methyl-styrene and isobutyl vinyl ether I

Cationic copolymerination of α-MS and IBVE was successfully carried out using “H2O”/EtAlCl2 initiator system and CH2Cl2 solvent at −50°C. The effect of monomer feed concentration on the copolymer yield and composition was studied. Small concentrations of IBVE had significant effect on the copolymer yield and composition, while that of α-MS had only marginal effect. Tg of the copolymers was linearly dependent on the α-MS content strongly indicating that the copolymerization was of random nature.