Kinetic patterns of the synthesis and aspects of the structure of styrene copolymers with divinyl adipate

Radical copolymerization of styrene with divinyl adipate in benzene solution at 348 K initiated by benzoyl peroxide has been studied. A kinetic feature of the system studied is the two-stage character of the process. At the first stage the reaction proceeds with self inhibition leading to “translimitation” of the process on incomplete conversion, the depth of which depends on the composition of the initial monomer blend. At the second stage self-acceleration is observed accompanied by the formation of spatially crosslinked copolymers. The composition and structure of the copolymers obtained for different conversions and initial monomer ratios have been studied. It is shown that at the first stage reactive linear copolymers form with “pendant” double bonds which may be of practical interest in devising polymer-oligomer compositional materials.