Oxidative Metamorphosis of Poly(Styrenedisulfide) Backbone

Abstract

This is the first report on the oxidation of a disulfide polymer, viz., poly(styrenedisulfide) (PSD). Oxidation was performed using KMnO4 and KHSO4, which are strong and mild oxidizing agents, respectively. Fourier transform−infrared spectroscopy (FT−IR) and intrinsic viscosity ([η]) measurements revealed that degradation of PSD occurs to some extent during oxidation when KMnO4 was used. Further, FT−IR and [η] results indicated that the oxidation of PSD using KMnO4 is better in heterogeneous conditions than under phase-transfer medium because the degradation was curtailed in the former case. Direct pyrolysis−mass spectrometry (DP−MS), Fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FABMS) and pyrolysis−gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (Py−GC−MS) analyses of the oxidized PSD was carried out and the obtained results corroborate well with the FT−IR and [η] studies. Increased rigidity of the oxidized polymers which is reflected in their Tg and [η] values, compared to PSD, was further confirmed by the radius of g...