Ring structure of cyclic poly(2-vinylpyridine) proved by pyrolysis-GC/MS

Poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) with cyclic structure was tentatively prepared through the reaction of linear P2VP having two living ends followed by coupling with a bifunctional coupling agent. Thus, prepared crude product was fractionated by preparative size exclusion chromatography in order to enrich the cyclic polymer portion. Then the existence of the ring structure in the fractionated P2VP sample was directly confirmed for the first time by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry by detecting the characteristic fragments reflecting the coupling moiety of the polymers at which the coupling agent combined the living 2VP units at both functional points.