Kinetic study of free radical bulk copolymerization of styrene-methyl methacrylate

In an attempt to reveal the kinetic mechanism of free radical bulk copolymerization of styrene-methyl methacrylate (SMMA), experiments were conducted in sealed glass ampules at constant temperature using benzoyl peroxide as catalyst. The analysis of the various experimental data for rate of polymerization and other parameters indicate that: (a) the rate of copolymerization is lower than the homopolymerization of pure styrene and methyl methacrylate (M MA), separately and decreases graduallywith increasing styrene content from ~ 0.2 to 0.9 molfraction in the feed; (b) the termination mechanism in SM MA copolymerization is controlled by diffusion