Studies of solution properties of copolymers. II. Copolymer of maleic anhydride and styrene

TLDR: In this paper, the Stockmayer-Fixman equation was used to estimate the mean square end-to-end distance for a chain of repeating units of different bond lengths with a fixed valence angle and without restriction of internal rotation.

Abstract: Styrene and maleic anhydride were copolymerized in benzene. The whole polymer thus obtained was fractionated with acetone and petroleum ether as the solvent and precipitant, respectively. The viscosities and osmotic pressures of the fractions were determined in tetrahydrofuran. The relation between the intrinsic viscosity and the molecular weight, [η] = 5.07 × 10−5 Mn0.81, was obtained in tetrahydrofuran. The unperturbed mean square end-to-end distance was estimated by the Stockmayer-Fixman equation. A theoretical equation for the mean square end-to-end distance for a chain of repeating units of different bond lengths a and b with a fixed valence angle θ and without restriction of internal rotation was presented and applied to this copolymer. In addition, the equation of the mean-square end-to-end distance derived by Wall for trans-polyisoprene without rotational restriction was modified for application to this copolymer. The result evaluated with our equation was about 26% smaller than that from the modified Wall equation. A steric parameter for the present copolymer is defined and discussed in comparison with those of polystyrenesulfone and polystyrene.