Mn. Teerenstra et al., Flexibilized styrene-N-substituted maleimide copolymers. I. Multiblock copolymers prepared from styrene-maleimide telechelics and polytetrahydrofuran, J POL SC PC, 38(19), 2000, pp. 3550-3557
Citations number
20
Categorie Soggetti
Organic Chemistry/Polymer Science
Journal title
JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE PART A-POLYMER CHEMISTRY
Telechelic copolymers of styrene and different N-substituted-maleimides (SM
Is) with a molecular weight of 2000-8000 g/mol were synthesized using the s
tarved-feed-reactor technique and were nearly bifunctional when the monomer
feed had a high styrene concentration. The COOH-terminated rigid SMI block
s were poly-condensated with OH-terminated poly(tetrahydrofuran) (PTHF) blo
cks, with a molecular weight of 250-1000 g/mol,which are the flexible parts
in the generated homogeneous multiblock copolymer. The entanglement densit
y, which is closely related to the toughness of materials, increased in the
se flexible SMI copolymers (nu(e) = 5.2 . 10(25) m(-3)) compared to the unf
lexibilized ones (nu(e) = 2.4 . 10(25) m(-3)). The glass transition tempera
ture of these flexibilized, single-phase multiblock copolymers was still hi
gh enough to qualify them as engineering plastics. (C) 2000 John Wiley & So
ns, Inc.