Copolymerization studies of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate with ethylene using a transition-metal catalyst.

Since the advent of Ziegler-Natta polymerization of ethylene, attempts have been made to extend coordination polymerization to commercially important monomers with polar functionality. In this study we examined the copolymerization of perdeuterated vinyl chloride (VC) and perdeuterated vinyl acetate (VA) with ethylene using a tridentate Fe(II) dichloride pyridine diimine metal catalyst. The resulting ethylene oligomers were examined by GC/MS and 2H NMR spectroscopy.