VERSATILE APPROACH FOR INVESTIGATING SITE SEPARATION IN FUNCTIONALIZED ORGANIC POLYMERS CONTAINING CERTAIN DONOR GROUPS

Resins containing pendant chloromethyl groups were prepared by suspension copolymerization techniques and functionalized with imidazole. This imidazole polymer, at various percent cross-linking and loading was used to examine the utility of Co(DPGB)2-2MeOH as a reagent to investigate the existence of isolated functionalizedsites in the resin. In this study, Co(DPGB)2-2MeOH is attached to the imidazole-containing polymer via axial coordination, and the resulting polymer complexes are studied by ESR. The ESR analysis of the coordinated cobalt centers yielded characteristic spectra of 1: 1 and 2: 1 imidazole-cobalt adducts depending on the cross-linking and loading of imidazole. The reaction of the polymer-bound cobalt(II) complex with dioxygen hasbeen investigated. Factors influencing the comparison of the oxygen affinity for the polymer-bound complex withsolutiondata are discussed. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.