Maleic anhydride copolymers chain scission

According to most sources, the homopolymer of the vinyl alkyl ethers react to ionizing radiation predominantly by cross-linking 18). It is safe to conclude that maleic anhydride has contributed a predominance of chain scissioning to the copolymer and that, if cross-linking does take place, it is in very small proportion. 

There has been a slight increase in activity in this area compared with that in the previous two year period. For the polymeric esters of acrylic, methacrylic acids, and related polymers the simplest reaction, apart from thermal depolymerization, is hydrolysis, and one or two papers on this subject have appeared. One of these concerns a comparison of the kinetics of hydrolysis of a number of methacrylate esters and a further two deal with the formation of copolymers containing carboxylic acid functions. Methyl trifluoroacrylate forms alternating copolymers with cE-olefins (ethylene, propylene, isobutylene) and these are readily hydrolysed in boiling aqueous methanolic sodium hydroxide to yield hydrophilic fluoropolymers. Hydrolysis is reported to be nearly quantitative with no chain scission. An alternating copolymer is also formed by radical polymerization of maleic anhydride with A-vinyl succinimide. On hydrolysis this copolymer is... 

Polyl(trifluoroethoxy)(octafiuoro pentoxy)]phosphazene decomposes thermally by random chain scission. The decomposition process has been studied in detail for polyKbis trifluoroethoxy) phosphazene] using n.m.r., i.r. spectroscopy, gas chromotography, mass spectrometry, and electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis. Random chain scission is confirmed followed by depolymerization with an average zip length of 35 chain units. The thermo-oxidation of a hydroquinone-phosphorus oxychloride copolymer has also been investigated. Decomposition is a two-stage process, chain scission to form quinone followed by oxidation of the quinone to maleic anhydride. ... 

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