Copolymers of Styrene with Oxazolines

Oxazoline is a relatively strong nucleophile and therefore it can be polymerized in the presence of such nucleophilic counterions as iodide or bromide anions. Thus, the synthesis of block copolymers of styrene (St) and 2-methyl-2-oxazoline (MOXL) was attempted by a method similar to that described in the previous section 10S). 

Polymerization of styrene was initiated by iodine and the resulting polySt contained about 10 % iodine. This macromolecular iodide was used to initiate the polymerization of MOXL  

After the addition of MOXL the solution in DMF was refluxed for 36 hrs, and the resulting polymer was isolated and purified by precipitation from chloroform to diethyl ether. According to H-NMR spectroscopy the product contained 66—83 mol % of units derived from MOXL. The claim that block copolymer was formed was based on solubility data. Recently, similar results have been reported for the styrene oxide/2-methyl-2-oxyzoline system 106). 

---