Acrylic polymer radicals dynamic effects

Structure and mechanism in photochemical reactions. The reactions of geminal radical pairs created in bulk polymers are presented by Chesta and Weiss in Chapter 13. Of the many possible chemical reactions for such pairs, they are organized here by polymer and reaction type, and the authors provide solid rationalizations for the observed product yields in terms of cage versus escape processes. Chapter 14 contains a summary of the editor s own work on acrylic polymer degradation in solution. Forbes and Lebedeva show TREPR spectra and simulations for many main-chain acrylic polymer radicals that cannot be observed by steady-state EPR methods. A discussion of conformational dynamics and solvent effects is also included. 

The TREPR experiments and simulations described here have provided an enormous amount of structural and dynamic information about a class of free radicals that were not reported in the hterature prior to our first paper on this topic in 2000. Magnetic parameters for many main-chain acrylic radicals have been established, and interesting solvent effects have been observed such as spin relaxation rates and the novel pH dependence of the polyacid radical spectra. It is fair to conclude from these studies that the photodegradation mechanism of acrylic polymers is general, proceeding through Norrish 1 a-cleavage of the ester (or acid) side chain. Recently, model systems have... 

---