Copolymers as a Scaffold for Additional Chemical Reactions

The incorporation of comonomers into PET and other polyesters, with the intent that these comonomers would then serve as the site for additional, postpolymerization reactions, has not been widely explored. A potential difficulty in such an approach is that the reactive comonomer cannot react under PET synthesis conditions of ca. 285 °C/2h/Lewis acid catalyst if the modification is to be effective. Two such systems, stable under PET synthesis, and then subjected to post-polymerization reactions, have been recently reported. 

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