Arylsulfone Derivatives of Polystyrene

Arylsulfonyl chlorides have been found to react quantitatively with polystyrene in the presence of Friedel-Crafts catalysts at room temperature. Polymers having the general structure I, where R = H, CH3, Cl, Br, F and OCH3, were prepared and characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).