MANUFACTURE OF BRANCHED (CO)POLYMER, MANUFACTURE OF THERMOPLASTIC POLYMER, AND GRAFT (CO)POLYMER

Graft (co)polymers containing at least one unit of the structure in which [M]x is a polymeric side chain which comprises x monomer units and is formed from a homopolymer or copolymer formed by free-radical polymerisation, x is a number from 10 to 100 000, E and A are copolymerised filament sections of a chain molecule, and m and p are each at least 1 and together are a number greater than 100 (the degree of polymerisation), and formed by the addition reaction of a 4-substituted 1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione and/or azodicarboxylic acid ester with a filament section containing one allylic CH group or another filament section containing mobile protons, the substituents R or R and R being alkyl, aryl or hetaryl or equivalents thereof, and R and R being identical or different, are prepared by a process in which free radicals are formed along a preformed chain molecule and monomers are added, side chains being formed by free-radical chain polymerisation (graft copolymerisation), characterised in that a chain molecule containing mobile hydrogen (H), of the structure (I) in which Em and Ap are each m and p copolymerised filament sections respectively of a chain molecule, is reacted with a triazolinedione of the formula II or with an azodicarboxylic acid ester of the formula III in which R and R and/or R are other than hydrogen, in a manner known per se, free radicals are generated on the resultant substituents by oxidation, and the products are brought together with at least one olefinically unsaturated monomer which can be polymerised by means of free radicals.