Copolymerization of Benzylidene malononitrile with methyl methacrylate and spectroscopic studies before and after irradiation with gamma rays of the obtained copolymer

Benzylidene malononitrile (BMN) monomer was prepared from the condensation of benezaldehyde with malononitrile in absolute ethanol as a reaction medium using few drops of piperidine as a catalyst at the reflux temperature for one hour. This monomer (BMN) was copolymerized with methyl methacrylate (MMA) by solution polymerization technique in the presence of benzoyl peroxide as a free radical initiator using dimethyl formamide as a reaction medium in a sealed tube under a nitrogen atmosphere at 65°C. The Kelen-Tudös and Fineman-Ross were used to determine the copolymerization parameters of MMA (M 1 ) and BMN (M 2 ) monomers. It was found that, the reactivity ratios r 1 and r 2 for MMA and BMN are equal to 2.45, 0.12 - 0.05 respectively. Alfrey Price (Q) and (e) values were calculated and the obtained data indicated that the copolymer structure is a block system. Also, infrared, 1 H-NMR and UV-visible spectroscopic studies for the obtained copolymer were performed. Further UV-visible studies of the PMMA film blended with 1% by weight of the prepared MMA-BMN copolymer were carried out before and after irradiation with different gamma doses in the range from 0-100 KGy.