Polyacrylonitrile, carbanion

Thus polystyryl carbanions and polyacrylonitrile carbanions prepared by anionic polymerization were reacted with cellulose acetate or tosylated cellulose acetate in tetrahydrofuran under homogenous reaction conditions. The carbanions displaced the acetate groups or the tosylate groups in a S v2-type nucleophilic displacement reaction to give CA-g-PS and CA-g-PAN. Mild hydrolysis to remove the acetate/tosylate groups furnishes the pure cellulose-g-polystyrene (Figure 3). 

Several graft copolymers were prepared based on the anionic polymerization method to overcome some of the major problems encountered in radical-initiated grafting. This method is used to prepare a living synthetic polymer with mono- or dicarbanions to react with modified cellulosic substrates under homogeneous conditions. For example, polyacrylonitrile carbanion was prepared to react with cellulose acetate to generate a cellulose acetate-polyacrylonitrile graft polymer [142]. 

---