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Free radical polymerization of captodative substituted methyl 2-methoxyacrylate (MMOA) was carried out in bulk with or without azo initiators at 90–130 °C. At higher temperatures, bimodal molecular weight distribution polymer was obtained by the polymerization of MMOA irrespective of the presence of initiator in contrast to the polymerization at 90 °C where unimodal polymer was produced. In addition, block copolymers were conveniently obtained by heating the comonomers including vinyl acetate and acrylonitrile at 130 °C in the presence of poly(MMOA) without any initiator. These unique reactions were reasonably explained by the cleavage of captodative substituted carbon–carbon single bond at head-to-head structure in polymer chain, which was produced by recombination termination. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) were prepared by photo and thermal polymerizations of diacrylate, diepoxide and hybrid monomer mixtures, in which the functional groups in each monomer were linked by bisphenol A hard segment. Dynamic mechanical analysis, tensile tests, thermogravimetric analysis, hardness analysis and visible spectrometry were performed to evaluate the properties of the IPNs and their precursors. The IPNs obtained, containing a small amount of diepoxide, indicated the highest mechanical properties at a ratio of hybrid/diacrylate of around 1:2. This composition also agreed with the composition showing highest surface hardness and transparency. In addition, the influence of microwave irradiation on curing time was also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]