Synthesis of ethylene and butyl methacrylate‐based copolymer by emulsion polymerization

ABSTRACT The emulsion copolymerization of ethylene with butyl methacrylate (BMA) was carried out in an aqueous medium at 60 °C under moderate reaction conditions. The polymer system is well controlled with a linear increase in the molecular weight (Mn) versus ethylene feed pressure and narrow molecular weight distributions (>1.36) were observed throughout the copolymerization reaction. The spectroscopic analyses confirm the presence of acrylate functional as well as methylene group in the synthesized poly(ethylene‐co‐BMA) copolymer. Morphological behavior of poly(ethylene‐co‐BMA) has been studied using SEM and TEM analyses. Thermal stability of the copolymers was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis and it was observed that the copolymer is stable up to 380 °C. X‐ray diffraction analysis confirmed the amorphous behavior of poly(ethylene‐co‐BMA). Dynamic light scattering measurement confirms the formation of poly(ethylene‐co‐BMA) nanoparticles. The particle size of copolymer nanoparticles were in the range of 85–108 nm with low polydispersity indexes (>0.2). The viscous and the elastic property of the copolymer were investigated and established that at high temperature elastic behavior predominant over viscous effect. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 47994.