Novel densely alkylated hydroxyl-functional polyvinylpyrrolidone showing phase-selective solubility

Journal article, 2006

Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is a commonly used polymer with many different applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. However, the lack of reactive groups and the difficulty in copolymg. the monomer, N-vinylpyrrolidin-2-one (NVP) with most other monomers, limits the possibility of modifying the phys. and chem. properties of the polymer. Monomers that are derivs. of NVP itself are expected to show small differences in radical reactivity as compared to the parent monomer and provide a way of adjusting the polymer properties without extensive compositional drift during copolymn. Here we present the synthesis of two new functionalized NVP-based monomers and their copolymn. with alkylated NVP-monomers for the prepn. of two functionalized PVPs with phase-selective soly. in heptane. Both copolymers showed 99.99% selective soly. in heptane over DMF (thermomorphic system) and 99.99% in heptane over 90% EtOH-H2O (latent biphasic system). These results suggest that the polymers could be used as sol. supports to facilitate recovery and recycling of catalysts or reagents from liq./liq. systems after homogeneous reactions. [on SciFinder (R)]