COPOLYMERIZATION OF ETHYL CYANOACRYLATE AND ETHYLENE IN THE PRESENCE OF ZINC-CHLORIDE OF TRIFLUOROACETIC-ACID AS COMPLEXING AGENT

The free radical copolymerization of ethene and ethyl cyanoacrylate (E CA) in the presence of Lewis and Bronsted acids has been studied in de tail. Both trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and ZnCl2 . Et(2)Q were found to be useful complexing agents for synthesizing highly alternating copol ymers of olefins and ECA. The influence of the complexing agents was q uantified by determination or the copolymerization parameters r(1) of ECA for ECA/ET copolymerization. The synthesized copolymers showed unu sual thermal behavior with regard to their alternating structure. This was established by the semi-crystallinity and the variation of the gl ass transition temperature with the degree of alternation.