Complex‐radical terpolymerization of phenanthrene, maleic anhydride, and trans‐stilbene

The radical terpolymerization of the donor-acceptor-donor monomer system, phenanthrene (P)-maleic anhydride (M)-trans-stilbene (S), was studied. These monomers are known to be nonhomopolymerizable. The terpolymerization was carried out in p-dioxane and/or toluene at 70°C in the presence of benzoyl peroxide used as the initiator. P and S were found to form charge transfer complexes (CTC) with M in p-dioxane at 35°C. The results obtained are discussed in terms of the free monomer and complex propagation models. It is shown that terpolymerization is carried out at a stage close to binary copolymerization of two complexomers