A novel HEMA-derived monomer and copolymers containing side-chain thiophene units: Synthesis, characterization and thermal degradation kinetics

In this study, a novel 2-{[2-(3-thienyl)acetyl]oxy}ethyl2-methylacrylate (HEMAT) monomer was synthesized by esterification reaction of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) with 3-thiophene acetic acid. Homopolymer and random copolymer of HEMAT and methyl methacrylate (MMA) were prepared by bulk polymerization at 65 °C using AIBN as an initiator. The polymers were characterized by FT-IR and 1H NMR. PHEMAT and P(MMA-co-HEMAT) copolymer (95% PMMA–5% PHEMAT) were found to exhibit significantly enhanced properties compared to PMMA and PHEMA. Thermal behavior of HEMAT homopolymer and copolymer with MMA was also investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TG). The apparent activation energies for thermal degradation of PHEMAT and P(MMA-co-HEMAT) were obtained by Kissinger and Tang methods. The results indicate that the side-chain thiophene units do have an influence on the effect follows the order P(MMA-co-HEMAT), PHEMAT, PHEMA and PMMA.