Vinylarene/CO copolymerization and vinylarene/polar vinyl monomer/CO terpolymerization using palladium/phosphine-sulfonate catalysts.

Palladium/phosphine-sulfonate complexes were effective for the alternating copolymerization of vinylarenes with carbon monoxide (CO). The obtained copolymers had iso-enriched microstructures with ll selectivity of up to circa 60%. The catalytic system was successfully applied to the terpolymerization of vinylarene and polar vinyl monomers with CO to produce novel terpolymers, which could not be obtained by using previously developed catalysts. NMR and DSC analyses suggested that vinylarene/CO units and polar vinyl monomer/CO units were randomly distributed in the terpolymer main chains.