MICROSTRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION AND THERMAL ANALYSIS OF BLOCK COPOLYMER OF METHYL METHACRYLATE AND n-BUTYL ACRYLATE

Microstructural characterization of synthetic copolymers can be employed to establish structure-property relationships for various practical applications. Acrylic copolymers are economical and suitable for processing into interesting materials for diverse applications. The relative composition, sequence distribution, and configuration of block copolymer monomeric units of poly(methyl methacrylate-b-n-butyl acrylate) (PMMA-b-nBA) was studied by the combination of Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC). Configurational assignments of MMA and BA blocks were determined from C-13 NMR and heteronuclear single-quantum correlation spectroscopy (HSQC), respectively. The alpha-carbon resonances from methacrylic units appear from downfield to upfield in the order mm, rm/mr, rr, whereas they appear in the opposite order in acrylic units.