Copolymerization of 2‐methylene‐4‐phenyl‐1,3‐dioxolane with electrophilic vinyl monomers through zwitterionic mechanism

Abstract

AbstractSpontaneous copolymerization of cyclic ketene acetal, 2‐methylene‐4‐phenyl‐1,3‐dioxolane (I) with common electrophilic vinyl monomers, such as methyl α‐cyanoacrylate (MCA), acrylonitrile (AN), and methyl methacrylate (MMA) were investigated to further explore zwitterion polymerization method with cyclic ketene acetals. In the reaction of I with MCA and AN, spontaneous copolymerization took place at ambient temperature. The copolymers of I with MCA gave low molecular weight polymers, but copolymers obtained with I and AN were high molecular weight polymers. In the reaction of I and MMA, high molecular weight copolymer was obtained only at temperatures above 80°C. Thus, obtained polymers were not the alternating copolymers and possessed high I content in all the cases. From the above results, macrozwitterionic mechanism was suggested as discussed.