Koinuma, Y; Murata, Y; Otsu, T; Takita, Y; ,
Diisopropyl fumarate (DiPF), a monomer with bulky ester substituents, was copolymerized with some kinds of comonomers, styrene (St), vinyl acetate (VAc), methyl methacrylate (MMA), methacrylic acid (MAA), acrylonitrile (AN), isobutylene (IB), 1,3-butadiene (BD), and vinyl chloride (VC), with a radical initiator at 60 degrees C. DiPF underwent copolymerizations with St, VAc, AN (r(1)=0.197, r(2)=16.13; reactivity ratios for copolymerization of DiPF (M(1))), IB (r(1)=0.418, r(2)=0.0), BD (r(1)=0.142, r(2)=0.895), and VC (r(1)=0.488, r(2)=0.292), but it showed little reactivity to MMA and MAA. In the copolymerizations of St, VAc, and VC containing less than 5 mol% of DiPF, the changes in polymer yield were insignificant, and the intrinsic viscosities of the copolymers of St and VAc were not affected by DiPF. Thermal properties of the copolymers with St, VAc, and VC were examined by DSC and TGA. Introduction of the DiPF unit to poly-St and poly-VC showed no change in T-g when the content was less than 10 mol%. Thermal decomposition temperatures of the copolymers with VAc and VC decreased with increasing content of the DiPF unit.