Study on copolymerization behavior of 2-substituted 4-methylene-1,3-dioxolane with maleic anhydride and acrylonitrile

Copolymerizations of 4-methylene-2-styryl-1,3-dioxolane ( 1 ) and 4-methylene-2-methyl-2-styryl-1,3-dioxolane ( 2 ) with electron-deficient monomers, such as maleic anhydride (MA) and acrylonitrile (AN) were investigated. Only homopolymer of 1 was obtained from the copolymerization of 1 with MA in the presence or absence of AIBN. The copolymerization of 1 and AN with AIBN as initiator gave a copolymer consisting of three kinds of repeating units. Reaction of 2 with MA gave a crystalline product with and without AIBN present. A nine-membered ring structure is proposed for this product based on its IR, UV, proton and ¹³C-NMR spectra, as well as elemental analysis. No polymer was obtained from the copolymerization of 2 and AN with or without AIBN initiator. Based on the structures of the products obtained from the copolymerization, a number of polymerization mechanisms are proposed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.