Methyl methacrylate with methacrylonitrile copolymerization

The incorporation of small percentages (<10%) of 3-oximino-2-butanone methacrylate (4) into poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) (Scheme I) results in a four fold increase in polymer sensitivity in the range of 230-260 nm flO.l 11. Presumably, the moderately labile N-O bond is induced to cleave, leading to decarboxylation and main chain scission (Scheme II). The sensitivity is further enhanced by the addition of external sensitizers. Also, preliminary results indicated that terpolymerization with methacrylonitrile would effect an additional increase. These results complement those of Stillwagon (12) who had previously shown that copolymerization of methyl methacrylate with methacrylonitrile increased the polymer s sensitivity to electron beam irradiation. The mole fraction of the comonomers was kept low in order to insure retention of the high resolution properties of PMMA (3.41. 

In an effort to improve PMMA s photosensitivity further, methyl methacrylate has been copolymerized with higher percentages of the a-keto-oxime methacrylate and terpolymerized with varying amounts of methacrylonitrile. The resulting effects on resist properties, e.g., sensitivity, contrast and resolution, and plasma resistance, are reported here. The terpolymers are up to 85 times more sensitive than PMMA, and retain its high resolution characteristics. 

Table 7. Block copolymerization of methacrylonitrile (MAN) with the living prepolymer of methyl methacrylate (MMA) (2) in the presence of methylaluminum bis(2,6-di-ferf-butyl-4-methylphenolate) (3e) ... 

One of the first detailed studies on these systems was that of Beaman (26), who showed that methacrylonitrile polymerizes by an anionic chain mechanism when treated with various bases, including Na in liquid ammonia at —75° C. He noted also that low molecular weight polymers are obtained from reaction of acrylonitrile with butylmagnesium bromide. Foster (56) extended the liquid ammonia method to copolymerization studies in which acrylonitrile was combined with styrene, with methyl methacrylate and with vinyl butyl sulfone. Satisfactory data were obtained only with the sulfone, in which case there was some tendency for alternation. 

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