Random Copolymers by Cationic Copolymerization

Cationic copolymerization of cyclic ethers, formals, esters and anhydrides has been thoroughly studied in recent years and sufficient information about it is now available. The propagating species involved in the cationic copolymerization of these oxacyclic monomers are believed to be the oxonium ions in most cases, but their detailed nature is dependent on monomer structure. From their copolymerization behavior, these monomers can be arranged in the following order of increasing car-bocationic character of the propagating species  

Monomer pairs close to each other in this series can form random copolymers, but remote monomer pairs are apt to yield homopolymer mixtures because of the dissimilarity of the propagating species. 

The propagating species involved in the polymerization of cyclic formal seem to resemble carbocations, and random copolymers are formed in the copolymerization of cyclic formals with styrene. For the copolymerization of DOL with styrene, the DOL-St cross-sequence was estimated, by NMR or by chemical methods, from the decrease of the formal unit in the copolymer and the formation of nearly random copolymer was confirmed132.  

In the cationic copolymerization of DOL with styrene considerable cleavage of polymer chains occurs if the styrene content is high hut a molecular weight as 

The effect of propagation-depropagation equilibrium on the copolymer composition is important in some cases. In extreme cases, depolymerization and equilibration of the heterochain copolymers become so important that the copolymer composition is no longer determined by the propagation reactions. Transacetalization, for example, cannot be neglected in the later stages of trioxane and DOL copolymerization111, 173. This reaction is used in the commercial production of polyacetal in which redistribution of acetal sequences increases the thermal stability of the copolymers. 

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