Radical Copolymerization of N-Substituted Maleimide and Acrylamide (AM)/Acrylic Acid/2-Hydroxy Ethyl Methacrylate: Determination of Monomer Reactivity Ratios

The N-[4-(acetyl)phenyl amino] maleimide (APAMI) and it's homo and copolymers have been synthesized and structurally characterized by FT-IR and H-1- NMR spectroscopic methods and biologically by antibacterial and antifungal assays for evaluating their potential use for biomedical applications. The compositions of the copolymers as well as reactivity ratios for applied comonomers were determined by Finemann Ross method. Copolymers (C-APAMI) with various proportions of N-[4-(acetyl)phenyl amino]maleimide (APAMI) and Acrylic acid[AA] were prepared by free radical polymerization in tetrahydrofuran (THF) using 2,2'-azo-bis-isobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator at 70 +/- 2 degrees C. The nine copolymer samples were synthesized from different feed ratio of comonomers. Thermal behavior of polymers was evaluated by TGA. Gel permeation chromatography was applied to determine the molecular weights of the polymers.