Study of the features of emulsion copolymerization of methyl methacrylate and allyl methacrylate

Abstract It is shown that latex copolymerization of methyl methacrylate and allyl methacrylate gives a high yield of copolymers containing a considerable number of side allyl double bonds. The influence of the concentration of allyl methacrylate on the rate of copolymerization with methyl methacrylate, the content of the gel fraction and the number of double bonds in the copolymers has been studied. It has been established that on latex copolymerization the allyl double bonds of allyl methacrylate do not take part in the reaction of intramolecular cyclization but enter the crosslinking reaction. A mathematical model is proposed to describe the kinetics of the copolymerization process with reference to the crosslinking reaction via the allyl double bonds.