Copolymerization of 3,3,3‐trifluoro‐1,2‐epoxypropane with N ‐phenylmaleimide using organozinc initiators

Novel copolymers consisting of 3,3,3‐trifluoro‐1,2‐epoxypropane (TFEP) and N ‐phenylmaleimide (PMI) units were prepared by the copolymerization of TFEP with PMI initiated with an organozinc compound. Using [Zn(OCH 3 ) 2 · (C 2 H 5 ZnOCH 3 ) 4 ] as an initiator, the copolymer chains consisted mainly of TFEP‐TFEP sequences. The TFEP‐PMI sequence content in the copolymer chains was small. On the other hand, using (C 2 H 5 ZnOCH 3 ) 4 as an initiator, only low molecular weight copolymers were formed. Those copolymers were suggested to have block structure, poly(TFEP)‐ block ‐poly(PMI), by the 19 F NMR analysis. The copolymers showed higher thermostability than poly‐(TFEP).