Dependence of polymerization ability of maleimidophenyl methacrylates on t-electron structure of maleimide fragments

New maleimidophenyl methacrylates with different substituents in maleimide fragments were synthesized and their structures were confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The kinetics of radical thermoinitiated homopolymerization of these monomers in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solutions in the presence of AIBN at 80 °C have been investigated with dilatometry. Substituents variation in the maleimide units gave us the opportunity to systematize the results obtained. It was found that not only the unsubstituted maleimide groups take part in a cross-linking processes during the thermoinitiated radical polymerization of these monomers, but also the monomer with X1 = H, X2 = CH3. rother monomers formed linear polymers. For monomers with tetrahydrophthalimide larger substituent crosslinking processes are observed after homopolymerization of methacrylic group. The activity of synthesized compounds has been discussed.