Investigation of polycondensation through the copolycondensation of preformed oligomers and bisphenols by a two‐stage solution reaction with tosyl chloride,dimethylformamide, and pyridine

A two‐stage copolycondensation of an equimolar mixture of isophthalic acid and terephthalic acid first with a bisphenol (BP) and then with another BP was carried out with a tosyl chloride/dimethylformamide/pyridine condensing agent. When the preformed oligomers from a BP with no substituent or a methyl substituent were allowed to react with another BP comonomer containing polar SO₂, CO, or Cl groups, the copolycondensation was significantly promoted. Such effects were absent with the unsubstituted BP and the methyl derivative. In addition, during the reaction of oligomers from BPs with polar groups, a similarly polar BP did not react so effectively, and the unsubstituted BP did not have any effect on the copolycondensation. On the basis of the sequence distributions for the resultant copolymers determined by ¹H NMR, it was likely that the copolycondensation could be promoted when the second comonomers were randomly distributed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 4024–4031, 2002