The copolymerization of methacrylaldehyde with hydrophilic monomers

Abstract Copolymers of methacrylaldehyde with hydrophilic monomers — 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate, 5‐hydroxy‐3‐oxapentyl methacrylate, 8‐hydroxy‐3,6‐dioxaoctyl methacrylate, N ‐ethylmethacrylamide, N , N ‐diethylacrylamide, and N , N ‐diethylmethacrylamide — were prepared by solution polymerization in N , N ‐dimethylformamide initiated with 2,2′‐azodiisobutyronitrile. In the copolymer of methacrylaldehyde (1) with 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (2) ( r 1 = 0,77, r 2 = 0,36) and in the copolymer of methacrylaldehyde with N , N ‐diethylacrylamide ( r 1 = 3,79, r 2 = 0,14) the content of CHO groups corresponds to that ot methacrylaldehyde units in the triads comonomer — methacrylaldehyde — comonomer; in the copolymer of methacrylaldehyde with N ‐ethylmethacrylamide ( r 1 = 4,07, r 2 = 0,14) both comonomers react with each other and the content of CHO groups is very low, while in the copolymer of methacrylaldehyde with 5‐hydroxy‐3‐oxapentyl methacrylate ( r 1 = 1,48, r 2 = 0,34) the majority of methacrylaldehyde units contain an unreacted CHO group.