Radical copolymerization of γ-methylene-Δα,β-butenolide derivative: Ethyl(E)-5-oxo-2,5-dihydrofuran-2-ylidene-acetate

Radical polymerications including co- and terpolymerizations of a γ-methylene-Δ^α,β-butenolide derivative, ethyl (E)-5-oxo-2,5-dihydrofuran-2-ylideneacetate(EODY) was investigated. The monomer had no homopolymerizability but copolymerized with styrene (ST) and 1,3-cyclohexadiene to yield alternating copolymers. From IR and ¹H-NMR spectra of the copolymers, the 1,4-addition was confirmed to exclusively occur for the conjugated double bond of EODY. Terpolymerization for the system involving an acceptor monomer such as maleic anhydride, α-chloromaleic anhydride, or 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane in addition to ST and EODY gave the terpolymer containing about 50 mol% of ST, in spite of a high fraction of ST in the feed. It was inferred that such an apparent behavior of EODY as an acceptor monomer could be due to a resonance-stabilization of the propagating radical having EODY as a terminal unit, which is also responsible for the poor yields of the copolymers and terpolymers.