The introduction of chloromethyl groups into styrene‐based polymers, 1. Synthesis of 4‐chloromethylstyrene and 4‐methoxymethylstyrene and their copolymerisations with styrene

Abstract Details are given for the synthesis of 4‐methoxymethylstyrene ( 5 ), 4‐chloromethylstyrene ( 6 ), and their resulting polymers and copolymers with styrene and 1,4‐divinylbenzene. Conversion of the polymer‐bound methoxymethyl substituents into the corresponding chloromethyl groups is especially convenient as a means of producing resins for solid phase peptide synthesis and may be readily effected by reactions of appropriate methoxymethyl derivative with boron trichloride in CCl 4 at 0°C.