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Vinylamines copolymerized
Simple enamines such as vinylamine are hard to make, and their chemistry remains for the most part unexplored. Primary vinylamines are unstable relative to formation of imines, which tend to react further, so the work by authors opens routes to new thermoplastic resins with pendant amino groups. For example, using carbonyltris(triphenylphosphine)ruthenium(I) hydride catalyst, the chemists isomerize allylamine to 1-aminopropene. This compound has a half-life of 40 hours if the reaction vessel is lined with polytetrafluoroethylene, stainless steel, or silylated glass. Upon addition of acrylonitrile and a free-radical initiator of polymerization, the researchers produce the copolymer shown (bottom). The group gets analogous results with 3-methylaminopropene.
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