Quaternary groups, elimination during

The P-alkoxy elimination pathway is important during the incorporation of oxygen-containing monomers. Therefore, it is often necessary to provide distance between the olefin and the polar group, or to prevent chain walking close to the group that can be eliminated by the placement of a quaternary carbon spacer [87], The incorporation of acrolein dimethyl acetal is accompanied by reduced activity and full catalyst... 

The reactivity of the nitroalkenes has been tested in the reaction with 1-thiosugars via conventional Michael reactions catalyzed by triethylamine. In both cases the stereoselective 1,2 addition proceeds by exclusive formation of an exo-adduct via formation of an S-linkage from the less hindered face of the molecule. As expected, the shielding effect of the 1,6-anhydro bridge effectively prevents the formation of the 2-equatorial product, yielding only the 2-axial products with a new quaternary center at C-2. This provides a stable molecule, as no epimerization or p-elimination is observed during the reduction of the nitro group. 

In comparison to the previously discussed monomers, the polymerization of N-substituted aziridines is easier to control since the side reactions by proton transfer are eliminated because of the absence of primary and secondary amines. Nonetheless, termination by nucleophilic attack of the cationic propagating chain end into polymeric tertiary amines results in the formation of unreactive quaternary ammonium groups, that is, termination. As a result, the polymerization of N-substituted aziridines usually stops at limited conversion as was first demonstrated for A-methylaziridine by Jones [129]. Detailed evaluation of the polymerization kinetics as well as the evolution of molar mass during the polymerization revealed that termination mainly occurs via intramolecular backbiting... 

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