Anionic Copolymerizations of Acrolein with Methyl Vinyl Ketone and Acrylamide by Imidazole

Abstract

Abstract The anionic copolymerizations of acrolein (AL) with methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and acrylamide (AAm) in the presence of imidazole (Im) as an initiator have been studied in tetrahydrofuran at 0°C. The AL-MVK copolymers were found to be composed of vinyl polymer with one Im group attached and having an aldehyde and a carbonyl side chain. The monomer reactivity ratio was determined from a Fineman-Ross plot as r1 = 2.02 and r2 = 0.06. On the other hand, the AL-AAm copolymer were found to be composed of polymer units of 1,2 and 1,4 addition polymerization of AAm. These observations might be explained by the intermolecular hydrogen transfer mechanism of AAm. The polymerization mechanisms were discussed on the basis of these copolymerization results.