Study on Synthesis and Characterization of Styrene-Maleic Anhydride Random Copolymer by Xylene

Radical copolymerization of styrene (St) and maleic anhydride (MA) were typically alternating copolymerization, which generated copolymer styrene-maleic anhydride (SMA). The copolymer was synthesized by solution polymerization method,with benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as initiator and xylene as solvent, and using the yield of copolymer as evaluation criteria, the reaction conditions were researched. The maleic anhydride of molar fraction was 45% in the copolymer measured by chemical titration, combined with the theoretical that the synthesis of styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer was confirmed to be the alternating copolymer. The structure and character of the copolymer was also confirmed by IR. The glass-transition temperature of the alternating copolymer was tested by DSC.