Experimental evidence of aggregation effects in comblike poly(mono-n-alkyl itaconates)

The effect of the length and the chemical structure of the side chain and the presence of the free carboxylic group was studied to explain the particular conformational and viscoelastic behavior of the poly(mono-n-alkyl itaconates). These polymers generally depict a deviation from the expected properties for flexible linear polymers, mainly due to high rigidity and chain thickness effects. The combined effects of stiffness and the excluded volume were analyzed in terms of wormlike chain models for poly(mono-n-octyl itaconate) (PMOI) and poly(mono-n-decyl itaconate) (PMDoI). In the case of PMOI, the conformational parameter K_θ in 1-butanol was found to be smaller than the K_θ value in other solvents.