A RARE CASE OF AZEOTROPIC COPOLYMERIZATION

Abstract

Copolymerizations with both reactivity ratios equal to one are rare. Therefore, we report here on the radical copolymerization of styrene and p-tert-butoxy-carbonyl-oxy-styrene in toluene with AIBN as initiator. We found it to be an azeotropic copolymerization for all compositions, i.e. f1 = F1 and r1 = r2 = 1. This is so because the electron density on the beta carbon of the substituted styrene is the same as on the beta carbon of the styrene