Methyl 2-methylpropenoate, hydrolysis

Exercise 29-15 Polymerization of methyl 2-methylpropenoate with benzoyl peroxide labeled with 14C in the aromatic ring gives a polymer from which only 57% of the 14C can be removed by vigorous alkaline hydrolysis. Correlation of the 14C content of the original polymer with its molecular weight shows that, on the average, there are 1.27 initiator fragments per polymer molecule. Write mechanism(s) for this polymerization that are in accord with the experimental data, and calculate the ratios of the different initiation and termination reactions. 

The beauty of the Szwarc procedure is that the chains can be terminated by hydrolysis, oxidation, carboxylation with COz, and so on, to give polymer with the same kind of groups on each end of the chain. Also, it is possible to form chains in which different monomers are present in blocks. The only requirements are that the different monomers polymerize well by the anion mechanism and contain no groups or impurities that will destroy the active ends. Thus one can start with ethenylbenzene (S), and when the reaction is complete, add methyl 2-methylpropenoate (M) to obtain a block copolymer of the type... 

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