Group-transfer copolymerization of cyclic trimethylsilyl dienolate with coumarin

This paper describes the group-transfer copolymerization of cyclic trimethy lsilyl dienolate (1) with coumarin (4), The copolymerization took place in the presence of tetrabutylammonium benzoate as the catalyst to produce the branched copolymer 5 having two lactone units. The structure of the isolate d copolymer was determined by the H-1 NMRI C-13 NMR, and IR spectra. The mo lecular weights were determined by GPC with DMF as eluent using polystyrene standards to be 6400-7900. The contents of coumarin units in the copolymer s are higher than 50%, because of occurrence of homopropagation of 4. (C) 2 001 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.