Synthesis of alternating copolymers of N-substituted maleimides with styrene via atom transfer radical polymerization

The bulk copolymerization of n-(2-acetoxylethyl)maleimide (AEMI) and n-phenyl maleimide (PhMI) with styrene is successfully demonstrated by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using phenylethyl bromide-Cu(I)Br-2,2??-bipyridine catalytic system. The results indicate that the copolymerization process is controllable and possesses a `living' polymerization nature. It also evidently suggests that the ATRP can be extended to the copolymerization of charge transfer complexes (CTC) forming comonomer pairs to prepare an alternating copolymer having a designed molecular weight with narrower polydispersity.EI02360-3614