Reactivity Ratios of Isobutyl POSS-Styrene and Styrene Monomers
Abstract
During recent years, there has been interest in incorporating polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) into many polymers. Due to its unique features, chemical composition and size, POSS can provide significant property enhancements to many plastics. POSS macromers, for instance, possess a hybrid inorganic-organic composition that can be tailored for incorporation into either thermoplastic or thermoset materials either by blending or by copolymerization. IsobutylPOSS-styrene macromer, (C4H9)7Si8O12(C8H7), will undergo free radical polymerization with styrene to form random copolymers. To obtain molecular weight data for POSS copolymers it would be useful to know the specific refractive index increment (dn/dc) for any particular copolymer system. We have now carefully measured the dn/dc values for a series of styrene/isobutylPOSS-styrene random copolymers; a plot of dn/dc is linear with respect to weight % POSS monomer incorporated into the copolymer. The plot can be used to either determine the dn/dc of an unknown POSS-content copolymer, or the % POSS incorporation depending on which variable is not known. Furthermore, for different POSS macromers, it should be possible to just measure the dn/dc for the POSS-homopolymer to generate the dn/dc values for all POSS weight %'s in a particular copolymer system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA430767
Entities
People
- Brian M. Moore
- Constance Schlaefer
- Rene I. Gonzalez
- Timothy S. Haddad
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory