AMINE FUNCTIONAL POLYMERS BASED ON N-ETHENYLFORMAMIDE

Hydrophobic polymers with adjustable levels of primary amine functiona lity can be prepared by copolymerization of N-ethenylformamide (NEF) w ith higher vinyl esters and post hydrolysis of the formamide groups. T he resulting polymers can be crosslinked under mild conditions using c ommercially available crosslinking chemistries. The high intrachain re activity of the vinylamine group with, for example, neighboring co-pol yacrylates and poor copolymerizability with other comonomers, for exam ple, styrene, limits the generality of the approach. Pitfalls and solu tions to the preparation of amine functional polymers via this approac h are presented.