Analysis of the Influence of Glycidyl Methacrylate on Molecular Weight and Refractive Index in Styrene-Methylmethacrylate-Glycidyl Methacrylate Copolymers Through Mixture Design of Experiments

To analyze the influence of the percentage of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) coupled with polymeric chains to determine their effect on molecular weight (M(w)) and refractive index (n(D)), a Mixture Design of Experiments (MDOE) has been used. A "d" optimal mixture design for four components was used for planning the runs and analyzing the information using statistical tools. The prototypes generated were synthesized using styrene (St) 73-89.98%, methylmethacrylate (MMA) 8-22%, and glydicyl methacrylate (GMA) 2-10%, at different ratios according to the experiment design. In this sense, the prototypes are terpolymers (St-MMA-GMA). According to the desired properties of the prototypes reviewed in literature and market studies, this is expressed in materials with a preferred n(D) (ca. 1.5750-1.5894) and molecular weight (ca. 300,000 g/mol) the ratios were established. In a radical polymerization process using a commercial initiator (Trigonox 22E-50) and a temperature program (120-200 degrees C) simulating an industrial process, the polymerization reactions were conducted. The detailed information derived from DOE here is presented. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 114:1935-1941,2009