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Chemistry · Ch 15 — Polymers

Copolymerisation

15.2.3

Copolymerisation

Mixing monomers deliberately

Copolymerisation is polymerisation carried out with a mixture of more than one kind of monomer, so that the resulting chain — the copolymer — contains multiple units of each monomer used. Importantly, this isn't restricted to one mechanism: a copolymer can be produced by either chain growth or step growth polymerisation.

Example: butadiene–styrene copolymer

Mixing buta-1,3-diene and styrene and polymerising them together gives:

n CH2=CH−CH=CH2  +  n C6H5−CH=CH2→polymerisation−(CH2−CH=CH−CH2−CH(C6H5)−CH2)−nn\,CH_2{=}CH{-}CH{=}CH_2 \;+\; n\,C_6H_5{-}CH{=}CH_2 \xrightarrow{\text{polymerisation}} {-}(CH_2{-}CH{=}CH{-}CH_2{-}CH(C_6H_5){-}CH_2){-}_n

This butadiene–styrene copolymer is also known as Buna-S or SBR.

Why bother copolymerising? …

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