The Effect of Solvent Nature on the Adhesive Properties of Binary Styrene–n-Butyl Acrylate Copolymer Films Formed by Casting on Solid Substrates

A methodological approach has been proposed for studying the effect of solvent nature on the adhesive properties of films of binary copolymers with different chain microstructures. The approach is based on a complex analysis of the thermodynamic work of adhesion in polymer–liquid model systems and the results of mechanical tests in combination with quantum-chemical calculations. The approach has been used for the first time for copolymers of styrene and n-butyl acrylate having gradient and random distributions of comonomer units over the chains, with the copolymers being synthesized by radical polymerization with reversible chain transfer. The results obtained have shown that the adhesive properties of the binary copolymer films may be regulated by varying the chemical nature of solvents from which they are formed.