Lithium amide catalyzed anionic polyaddition of 1,4-divinylbenzene with N,N′-diethylethylenediamine

Lithium amide catalyzed anionic polyaddition of N,N′-diethylethylenediamine ( 6 ) to 1,4-divinylbenzene ( 9 ) was carried out to obtain a new type of polyamine possessing a polymerizable vinyl group at the chain end, a so-called “macromer”. Analyses of the reaction and of the resulting polyamine by means of ¹³C NMR and GPC revealed that this polyaddition reaction is a typical equilibrium reaction which is not accompanied with any side reactions, except with a possible cyclization reaction. The equilibrium constants K and their temperature dependence were determined and compared with those of model reactions. The rate constants k₁ of the first step reaction and k₂ of the second step were also determined independently.