Abstract: A kind of new radiopaque sugar-containing terpolymers of poly[2-(2-triiodobenzoyl)oxoethyl me-thacrylate-co-2-(2',3',4',6'-tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-glucopyranosyloxy) ethyl methacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate] were synthesized via the radical terpolymerization in bulk. A study was carried out towards the effect of changing the monomer feed ratio and the content of the chain transfer agent on the molecular weight and mole-cular weight distribution of the terpolymers. Their detail chemical composition and structure were characterized via FTIR, ¹H NMR and GPC analyses. The feed ratio change shows a little effect on the terpolymer molecular weight, while the decrease of the content of the chain transfer agent obviously increases its molecular weight. The molecular weight distribution is in a range of 2 to 3, in agreement with the radical polymerization principle. The resulting terpolymers indeed possessed the radiopacity altered with the sample thickness.

Key words: Radiopaque polymer, Poly(methyl methacrylate), Sugar-containing polymer, Terpolymer