The effects of monomer ratio, temperature and initiator concentration on th
e copolymerization rate of vinyl chloride(VC)/N-phenyl maleimide(PMI) were
studied. The cross termination phi and the reciprocal of the comprehensive
rate delta(2) were measured to be 5.77 and 53.65, respectively. The results
showed that the copolymer composition of VC/PMI will largely change with t
he conversion. The activation energy of VC/PMI copolymerization and the pro
pagation reaction are 127.9 kJ/mol and 63.7 kJ/mol, respectively. The order
of initiator is 0.786. The reaction rates between VC/PMI and VC/N-cyclohex
yl maleimide (CHMI) are compared, and the later is more rapid than the form
er.