Toluene‐vapor sorption of chemically modified methyl methacrylate‐co‐chloromethyl styrene copolymers with N,N,‐dimethyl‐1,3‐propanediamine measured with a quartz crystal microbalance

The sorption properties of toluene vapor were measured for methyl methacrylate (MMA)‐co‐chloromethyl styrene (CMSt) copolymers chemically modified with N,N‐dimethyl‐1,3‐propanediamine (DMPDA) to develop a novel quartz crystal microbalance toluene‐vapor sensor coating. The influence of the structure of the comonomer, the composition of the copolymer, and the film thickness on the toluene sorption properties were investigated. The modified MMA–CMSt copolymers were capable of large, fast, and reversible sorption versus the modified styrene–CMSt copolymers. The largest sorption capacity was obtained for MMA–CMSt–DMPDA with a 96 mol % CMSt concentration. These behaviors were explained by a combination of the plasticization of the copolymers by the introduction of bulky DMPDA at lower CMSt concentrations and the formation of a loosely crosslinked structure at higher CMSt concentrations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009