| Abstract: | The crosslinking copolymerization of styrene (St)-m-divinylbenzene (m-DVB) in the presence of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was studied. The rate of the copolymerization decreased with the addition of PVC powder, because of the depressing of the diffusion of the monomers to the polymerizing center and the difficulty in the transfer of the polymer radicals in the swelled PVC powder. The exponential value of the benzoyl peroxide concentration and the activation energy of the copolymerization were obtained as 0.67 and 17.4 kcal/mol, respectively. The monomer reactivity ratios of St and m-DVB were determined as r1 = 0.25 and r2 = 1.42 (M1: St, M2: m-DVB). From the extraction of the resultant polymer composite with THF, both the grafting of the St-m-DVB copolymer onto PVC and the entanglement of PVC with St-m-DVB copolymer seems to occur in the St-m-DVB-PVC system. |
