The diffusion coefficients of oligomeric radicals in monomer-polymer systems have a major influence on properties such as polymerization rates and molecular weight distributions. The present work reports the results of an extensive set of studies of diffusion coefficients of rubbery ternary systems comprising polymer, diluent, and oligomer, determined by pulsed-field-gradient NMR, at 25 and 40°C. Oligomers of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and of butyl methacrylate (BMA) were synthesized by using a catalytic cobalt chain transfer agent to produce macromonomers with a terminal double bond. Where necessary, these were fractionated by preparative GPC to obtain samples ranging from dimeric to decameric; typical polydispersities were 1.08. Pulsed-field gradient NMR is facilitated by being able to monitor the proton NMR of the CH 2 hydrogens on the double bond. Matrixes used were high molecular weight polyMMA and polyBMA, the weight fraction of polymer (wp) being varied by adding appropriate amounts of diluent (the saturated equivalents of MMA and BMA, viz., methyl isobutyrate and butyl isobutyrate). Above c* (the concentration at which chains start to overlap), all data for diffusion coefficients Di of an oligomer of degree of polymerization i could be fitted with acceptable accuracy by D1(wp)/Di(wp) ) i 0.664 + 2.02w p , for both BMA and MMA oligomers in both MMA and BMA matrixes; the same relation also fits earlier data on styrene oligomers in polystyrene. If more accurate scaling parameters are obtained experimentally for smaller oligomers, these can be used to predict data for higher oligomers with even better reliability. For MMA monomer in pMMA, where free-volume parameters are available, the predicted dependences of monomer diffusion coefficient on w p and temperature are in accord with experiment.

The diffusion coefficients are reported of rubbery ternary systems consisting of the polymer, its monomer analogue (i.e., the saturated equivalent of the monomer), and trace quantities of oligomers (dimer, trimer, tetramer and hexamer) for 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). These have been obtained with pulsed‐field‐gradient NMR spectroscopy with a polymer weight fraction (fp) of 0 ≤ fp ≤ 0.4. The oligomers are macromonomers synthesized with a cobalt catalytic chain‐transfer agent. The diffusion coefficients are about an order of magnitude smaller than those for monomers such as methyl methacrylate; this effect is ascribed to hydrogen bonding in HEMA. The diffusion coefficient Di of an i‐meric oligomer has been fitted with moderate accuracy by an empirical universal scaling relation, Di(fp)/D1(fp) ≈ i, previously found to provide an adequate fit to corresponding data for styrene and for methyl and butyl methacrylates. The approximate empirical scaling relation seems to hold for a remarkably wide range of types of monomer/polymer systems. These results are of use in modeling rates and molecular weight distributions in free‐radical polymerization, particularly for termination (which is chain‐length‐dependent and is controlled by the diffusion coefficient of chains of the low degrees of polymerization studied here). © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 2491–2501, 2003

The average kinetic coefficient for chain transfer to monomer 〈ktr,M〉 in the free‐radical polymerization of n‐butyl methacrylate (BMA) has been determined by the analysis of molecular weight distributions obtained by seeded emulsion polymerization under conditions such that chain transfer to monomer is the dominant chain‐stopping event. Measurements between 40 and 70 °C gave data fitting an Arrhenius‐type relationship with exponential factor EA = 30 900 ± 4 500 J · mol−1 and pre‐exponential factor log A = 3.45 ± 0.15. The value for EA is comparable with published data for chain transfer to monomer from methyl methacrylate (MMA) and n‐butyl acrylate (BA). The A value, however, is 1–3 orders of magnitude smaller, suggesting that there is more hindrance for chain transfer to monomer for BMA than for either MMA or BA.magnified image

Random copolymers containing both ferrocene groups and thioether groups were synthesized by free-radical copolymerization of vinylferrocene and 2-(methylthio)ethyl methacrylate, and the random nature of the copolymerization was confirmed by spectroscopic studies. Copolymers with ferrocene-to-thioether ratios of 8 : 1 and 1.2 : 1 were used to modify the surfaces of gold electrodes, and the behaviours of the resulting surface-modified electrodes were investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The SMEs based on the copolymers showed superior stability compared to SMEs based on poly(vinylferrocene), with the most stable SMEs being formed from the copolymer with the higher proportion of thioether groups.

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