Introduction 4-t-Butyl ring-substituted ethyl phenylcyanoacrylate (PCA) is reported as a component of a functionalized UiO-66 MOF for turn-on fluorescence sensing of superoxide in water and as efficient catalysis for Knoevenagel condensation ; in studies of catalytic activity of mesoporous molecular sieve Rb-AlKIT-1 in organic reactions ; in metallic samarium promoted reductive dimerization cyclization of gem-diactivated alkenes, reductive debromination of vic-dibromides, and reduction of sodium alkyl thiosulfates in aqueous media . 4-Phenoxyphenyl ethyl PCA is mentioned in DBU-mediated annulations of donor-acceptor cyclopropanes with 3-aryl-2-cyanoacrylates for the synthesis of fully substituted anilines ; in studies on quinolin-2(1H)-one derivatives for synthetic access to pyrano quinoline and 3-substituted quinoline derivatives ; in synthesis of ethyl 3-(4-benzyloxyphenyl)-2-cyanoacrylate ; in synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular modeling studies of arylidene-thiazolidinediones with potential hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities ; in synthesis of analytically pure compounds in flow reactors ; in synthesis and biological activity of novel acridinylidene and benzylidene thiazolidinediones ; and in reactions of enolates ; in synthesis of 1,3,5-trisubstituted-2-thioxoimidazolidinones . 4-Acetyloxyphenyl ethyl PCA is reported in sequential three-component synthesis of tetrahydrobenzo pyran in water catalyzed by heterogeneous amine grafted on silica . 3-Cyanophenyl ethyl PCA is mentioned in AgNO3-catalysed intramolecular cyclization leading to functionalized cyclopentanones and spiro-cyclopentanones ; in synthesis of adenine-based coordination polymers and of p-xylylene dicyanide and related compounds . 4-Cyanophenyl ethyl (2Z) PCA is reported in successive oxidation-condensation reactions using a multifunctional gold-supported nanocomposite (Au/MgCe-HDO) and in synthesis of naphthalene core-based cleft-shaped strain molecules . 4-Dimethylaminophenyl t-butyl PCA was mentioned in synthesis of 1, 10-phenanthroline based Zn(II) complexes bearing 1D push-pull NLO-phores for tunable quadratic nonlinear optical properties , whereas 4-diethylaminophenyl tbutyl PCA is reported in studies photorefractive properties of poly(n-vinyl carbazole)based composites for high-speed applications . In this work we have prepared tertbutyl ring-substituted phenylcyanoacrylates (TPCA), RPhCH=C(CN)CO2C(CH3)3, where R is 4-t-butyl, 4-hexyloxy, 4-phenoxy, 4-benzyloxy, 4-acetoxy, 3-cyano, 4-cyano, 4-dimethylamino, 4-diethylamino, and explored the feasibility of their copolymerization with styrene. To the best of our knowledge except 4-dimethylamino and 4diethylamino , there have been no reports on either synthesis of these compounds, nor their copolymerization with styrene .