Living radical copolymerization of styrene/maleic anhydride

Styrene/maleic anhydride (MA) copolymerization was carried out using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) and 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO). Styrene/MA copolymerization proceeded faster and yielded higher molecular weight products compared to styrene homopolymerization. When styrene/MA copolymerization was approximated to follow the first-order kinetics, the apparent activation energy appeared to be lower than that corresponding to styrene homopolymerization. Molecular weight of products from isothermal copolymerization of styrene/MA increased linearly with the conversion. However products from the copolymerization at different temperatures had molecular weight deviating from the linear relationship indicating that the copolymerization did not follow the perfect living polymerization characteristics. During the copolymerization, MA was preferentially consumed by styrene/MA random copolymerization and then polymerization of practically pure styrene continued to produce copolymers with styrene-co-MA block and styrene-rich block. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 2239–2244, 2000