Acrylonitrile Polymerization Behavior in the Ethylene Carbonate

An homopolymer and acrylonitrile/itaconic acid(AN/IA) bipolymer and AN/IA/MA(methacrylate) terpolymer were prepared in ethylene carbonate(EC) solution using azodiisobutyronitrile(AIBN) as initiator via the free radical solution polymerization method.Effect of reaction temperature on AN homopolymerization and effect of monomer concentration on the copolymerization were investigated.AN copolymer with a relative molecular mass of 4.5×105 and monomer conversion of 85% was synthesized.Relative molecular masses of AN homopolymer,AN/IA and AN/IA/MA copolymers were controlled through N-formylpiperidine(FP) and 1-dodecanethiol(DDT) as chain transfer agents.Influence of the mass fraction of chain transfer agents on the molecular mass and conversion rate of the copolymers were also studied.The results shows that a polymer with molecular mass of 1×105 and monomer conversion of 80% was obtained by 0.25% mass fraction of DDT as chain transfer agent.