Synthesis and characterization of copolymer of styrene with methacrylic acid initiated by triphenylbismuthonium 1,2,3,4‐ tetraphenylcyclopentadienylide

The radical copolymerization of styrene with methacrylic acid (MAA) initiated by triphenylbismuthonium 1,2,3,4‐tetraphenylcyclopentadienylide in dioxan at 80 ± 0.1 °C for 3 h results in the formation of alternating copolymer as evidenced from the values of reactivity ratios as r₁ (styrene) = 0.03 and r₂ (MAA) = 0.025. The kinetic expression is R_p α I]^0.5 Sty] MAA] and overall energy of activation is computed to be 23 kJ/mol. The FTIR spectrum of the copolymer shows the presence of bands at 3054 cm^?1 assigned to the phenyl group of styrene and at 1724 cm^?1 assigned to the ? COOH group of MAA. The ¹H‐NMR spectrum of the copolymer shows peaks between 7.20 and 7.27 δ assigned to the phenyl protons of styrene and at 12.5 δ assigned to the COOH proton of MAA. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 1838–1843, 2005