Modeling ethylene/methyl methacrylate and ethylene/methacrylic acid copolymers using acyclic diene metathesis chemistry

The synthesis, characterization, and thermal behavior of ADMET models of ethylene/methyl methacrylate (EMMA) and ethylene/methacrylic acid (EMAA) copolymers are described. These model copolymers exhibit sharper melting transitions and lower melting points relative to random copolymers made using chain-growth polymerization methods. The EMMA and EMAA model copolymers are compared with ADMET ethylene-based model copolymers reported previously, comparisons which support the earlier finding that melting points decrease with an increase in the steric bulk of the pendant group.