Catalytic Performance of Fe(acac)_3-Al(i-Bu)_3 for Copolymerization of Maleic Anhydride and Anethole

Copolymers of maleic anhydride and other monomers can be used in many fields, such as detergent, coating, adhesive and medicine. Since the 1950s, the copolymerization of maleic anhydride and olefins was studied, but most of studies were focused on the radical copolymerization. In recent years, metal catalysts were used to catalyze the coordination copolymerization of maleic anhydride and olefins. In this paper, Fe(acac) 3 Al( i Bu) 3 was first used to catalyze copolymerization of maleic anhydride and anethole. The reaction was carried out in benzene at 80℃ under nitrogen atmosphere. The best conditions are c (monomer) =2 8 mol/L , c (Fe) =17 mmol/L , n (Al) / n (Fe) =8, and t =6 h. The kinetic studies indicated that the reaction rate of copolymerization was first order with respect to monomer concentration. The apparent activation energy of the copolymerization is 31 0 kJ/mol . The copolymer was characterized by NMR, IR, GPC and DTA. The content of maleic anhydride in the copolymer is 45 6%. The molecular mass distribution of the copolymer is narrow. The decomposition temperature of copolymer is 501 ℃. Fe(acac) 3 Al( i Bu) 3 is an effective catalyst for the copolymerization of maleic anhydride and anethole.