Complete spectral assignments of methacrylonitrile-styrene-methyl methacrylate terpolymers by 2D NMR spectroscopy

Methacrylonitrile-styrene-methyl methacrylate (N/S/M) terpolymers of different monomer concentrations were prepared by bulk polymerization. The terpolymer compositions were determined by quantitative ¹³C{¹H} NMR spectra and compared with those calculated by Goldfinger's equation using comonomer reactivity ratios: r_NS=0.30, r_SN=0.45; r_NM=0.91, r_MN=0.88; r_SM=0.52, r_MS=0.47. The overlapping and complex ¹³C{¹H} and ¹H NMR spectra of the terpolymers were assigned with the help of distortionless enhancement by polarization transfer and two-dimensional (2D) ¹³C-¹H heteronuclear single quantum coherence experiments. The various vicinal and geminal couplings between the protons in the polymer chains can be seen in the 2D total correlated spectroscopy experiments.