Maleimide polymers. III. Color reactions and kinetics

Abstract

AbstractWe have shown previously that the free‐radical polymerization kinetics of maleimide can be explained by a scheme for retarded polymerization. The steps involve tautomerization of a growing maleimidyl chain to succinimidyl, the retarded addition of maleimide to the latter, and termination solely by resonance‐stabilized succinimidyl radicals. Combination termination is preferred, since this yields a very stable N,N′‐bisuccinimidyl structure. Other authors also invoke tautomerization to succinimidyl radicals which they believe terminate by disproportionation with growing maleimidyl chains to generate polymer with unsaturated endgroups. Free‐radical‐initiated polymaleimides are colored in the presence of base. Our measurements of the absorbance of polymaleimides at 387 and 500 nm in the presence of excess strong organic base show there is essentially no dependence on molecular weight. This suggests that the chromophoric groups are intramolecular and that color does not arise from the ionization of allylic protons associated with terminal double bonds. The near‐ultraviolet spectra of polymaleimides in slightly acidic media contain absorption bands at about 288, 320, and 360 nm. The structural impurities that account for these bands cannot be terminal unsaturation. We propose that the origin of these bands is pyrrolinone type structures which are formed by a retarded polymerization step through succinimidyl oxygen.