N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone and methacrylonitrile copolymers: nuclear magnetic resonance characterization

The copolymers of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone and methacrylonitrile (V/N) were prepared by free radical bulk polymerisation. The copolymer composition was determined from the quantitative ¹³C{¹H} NMR spectrum. The reactivity ratios for N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (V) and methacrylonitrile (N) were found to be r_V=0.04, r_N=1.56. The complete spectral assignment of the overlapped and complex carbon and proton NMR spectra were done with the help of two dimensional ¹³C–¹H Heteronuclear Single Quantum Correlation Spectroscopy (HSQC) and Total Correlation Spectroscopy (TOCSY). Distortionless Enhancement by Polarization Transfer (DEPT) was used to differentiate between the methylene, the methine and the methyl carbon resonance signals of the copolymers.