NEW COPOLYMERS FROM ELECTROPHILIC TRISUBSTITUTED ETHYLENES AND ELECTRON-RICH VINYL CO-MONOMERS

Electrophilic trisubstituted ethylenes containing cyano and carbomethoxy substituents do not homopolymerize and undergo only limited anionic oligomerization, but readily from alternating 1:1 copolymers with monosubstituted electron-rich vinyl monomers such as styrene, p-methylstyrene, and vinyl acetate under free radical initiation. One of the important driving forces for these copolymerizations may be in the free radical propagation mechanism. In this work, ten new alternating, either 1:1 or 1:2, copolymers of electrophilic trisubstituted ethylenes with electron-rich vinyl monomers, were synthesized by free radical copolymerization.