Relation between chemical structure and properties for some poly(itaconic acid) derivatives

Itaconic acid and its derivatives are very interesting in polymer chemistry because a great variety of different polymers can be synthetized starting from a material which is not of petrochemical origin. Experimental glass temperatures of polyitaconic acid diesters with a series of diferent n-alkyl-, alkylphenyl-, alkylcyclohexyl-, tolyul-xylenyl- and alkoxyethyl-alcohols and some methacrylic acid diesters have been related to other parameters such as : cohesive energy density (CED), the hindrance to free rotation (sigma) and the parameter ''mass per flexible bond of the monomer unit'' (w/y) introduced by Schneider and Di Marzio.