Abstract
There is described in the thesis a series of attempts to ascertain information on the steric structure of copolymers by degradation and by optical rotatory measurements, and to alter the steric structure of given copolymers by treatment with appropriate reagents. The copolymer of styrene and maleic anhydride has been prepared and from it films and fibres have been made for physical investigation of the steric structure. The copolymer was shown to be amorphous. The anhydride copolymer has been sucessfully half esterified with methanol and an asymmetric transformation has been attempted with brucine, cinchonidine and quinidine. The rotation observed after acid treatment of the quinidine-copolymer compound was later shown to be due to strongly-retained quinidine. (+)-1,3-dimethylbutyl hydrogen maleate has been prepared and copolymerised with styrene. The optical dispersion of the resultant copolymer has been determined in a number of solvents. The observed rotation seems to be almost constant in solvents which do not react with the copolymer. In basic solvents, e. g. pyridine, a decrease in rotation was observed and it is concluded chat this was due to the interaction between the solvent and the acidic groups of the copolymer. A copolymer of styrene and vinylidene chloride has been prepared and the effects of various oxidising systems on it have been investigated in an attempt to elucidate the structure of the chain, but no steric results were obtained from this method. A copolymer of fumaryl chloride and styrene has been prepared but proved intractable. The acid chloride of methyl hydrogen fumarate has been prepared but attempts to further react this acid chloride with 1,3-dimethyl-butanol proved unsuccessful. Polyacrylonitrile has been prepared and an attempt made to induce steric regularity, by means of a prototropic shift brought about by basic treatment.