Free radical copolymerization of methyl substituted stilbenes with maleic anhydride

Stilbene-maleic anhydride is a well-known donor–acceptor comonomer pair which undergoes free radical copolymerization to form an alternating copolymer. A series of methyl substituted stilbenes were synthesized and copolymerized with maleic anhydride. A conversion versus time study was undertaken to understand the methyl substituent effect on copolymerization rates. Methyl substituents on the phenyl ring of stilbene can change the reactivity of stilbene by changing the resonance stability of the propagating radical and steric hindrance in the propagation step and thereby change the copolymerization rate. Methyl substituted stilbene-maleic anhydride copolymers were determined by quantitative 13C 1D NMR to be alternating copolymers. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) measurements showed that the weight-average molecular weights of these copolymers varied from 3000 to over 1,000,000 g/mol. Interchain aggregation was observed in poly((E)-4-methylstilbene-alt-maleic anhydride) by dynamic light scattering (DLS). The SEC trace for poly((E)-4-methylstilbene-alt-maleic anhydride) exhibited bimodal peaks. No glass transition temperature or crystalline melting temperature was observed between 0 °C and 250 °C by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that these polymers have 5% weight loss around 290 °C.