Polymers, carbanionic linking reactions

The method was used in studies of a fungal heterogalactan.150 The polysaccharide was subjected to successive tritylation, methylation, detritylation, p-toluenesulfonylation, reaction with sodium iodide, and, finally, reaction with sodium p-toluenesulfinate. The product was then treated with sodium methylsulfinyl carbanion in dimethyl sulfoxide, the product remethylated, and the polysaccharide material recovered by gel chromatography. The polymer was hydrolyzed, and the sugars in the hydrolyzate were analyzed, as the alditol acetates, by g.l.c.-m.s.1 The analysis revealed that —60% of the hexose residues that were unsubstituted at C-6 had been eliminated. As the product was still polymeric, it was concluded that these residues had constituted a part of side chains linked to a main chain of (1 — 6)-linked D-galactose residues. 

The reaction of an unsaturated compound with an antagonist function located at the end of a polymer chain is still the most commonly used method to synthesize macromonomers. We have already mentioned some processes that can be used to introduce into the chain end of a macromolecule a functional group, e.g. by deactivation of living carbanionic sites and transfer reactions of various kinds in cationic polymerization. We have also described some methods used to link an active terminal double bond to the chain end originally bearing hydroxy groups. 

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