Abstract
Methyl α-phenylacrylate (MPhA) was copolymerized with methacrylates which have ester groups of various sizes, such as benzyl, α-methylbenzyl, diphenylmethyl, α,α-dimethylbenzyl, 1,1-diphenylethyl, and trityl groups. The copolymerization was carried out with butyllithium in toluene and tetrahydrofuran at various temperatures with an initial monomer ratio of 1: 1. In both solvents the copolymers with highly alternating structure were obtained at 0 and 30°C, except for the case in which 1,1-diphenylethyl methacrylate was used as the comonomer in toluene. In general the copolymers were atactic. However, the coisotacticity of the alternating copolymers increased with increasing bulkiness of methacrylate and reached about 60% in the copolymer of MPhA and trityl methacrylate regardless of the polymerization medium. At −40 and −78°C MPhA was more reactive than the methacrylates. The optical activity of the copolymer of MPhA and (S)-α-methylbenzyl methacrylate was lower than the calculated value, and the difference increased as the content of the alternating sequence increased. The circular dichroism spectrum of the optically active copolymer was also measured.
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Yuki, H., Ohta, K., Hatada, K. et al. Alternating Copolymerization of Methyl α-Phenylacrylate and Various Methacrylates. Polym J 11, 323–330 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1295/polymj.11.323
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1295/polymj.11.323