The monomer phenyl acrylamide was synthesized by reacting acrylamide with chloro benzene in the presence of pyridine. Copolymer of phenyl acrylamide (PAM) with methyl methacrylate (MMA) was synthesized by free radical technique using dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as solvent and benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as initiator. The overall conversion was kept low (≤ 15% wt/wt) for all studies copolymers samples. The synthesized copolymers were characterized using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and their thermal properties were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The copolymers compositions were determined by elemental analysis. The monomer reactivity ratios have been calculated by linearization methods proposed by Kelen-Tudos and Fineman-Ross. The derived reactivity ratios (r1, r2) for (PAM-co-MMA) are: (0.03, 0.593). The microstructure of copolymers and sequence distribution of monomers in the copolymers were calculated by statistical method based on the average reactivity ratios and found that these values are in agreement with the derived reactivity ratios. Copolymers of PAM with MMA formed alternating copolymers.
