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) (r1 = 0,77, r2 = 0,36) and in the copolymer of methacrylaldehyde with N,N‐diethylacrylamide (r1 = 3,79, r2 = 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 (r1 = 4,07, r2 = 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 (r1 = 1,48, r2 = 0,34) the majority of methacrylaldehyde units contain an unreacted CHO group.