Deuterated methyl methacrylate in the study of radical copolymerization and copolymer structure

The kinetics of the copolymerization of D-MMA with H-MMA, triethylene glyco l dimethacrylate, and butanediol dimethacrylate was studied by measuring a decrease in intensity of the IR absorption bands of the D2C=C- and H2C=C- g roup vibrations. It was shown that isotope substitution has a negligible ef fect on the reactivity of C=C bonds of the methacrylate group, so that the copolymerization of D-MMA with H-MMA proceeds in an azeotropic mode. The Ma yo-Lewis model cannot describe the kinetics of the bulk copolymerization of D-MMA with dimethacrylates, which is determined by a number of factors inc luding a microheterogeneous character of the process, the formation of pend ant C=C bonds, violation of a uniform spatial distribution of the reagents, and a glass transition in the reacting system. Data of the high-resolution H-1 NMR spectroscopy confirmed the statistical distribution of monomer uni ts in the H-MMA/D-MMA linear copolymers and revealed a nonuniform distribut ion of crosslinks in the network copolymers of triethylene glycol dimethacr ylate with D-MMA.