Photopolymerization of 4-vinylbenzoate and m- and p-phenylenediacrylates in hydrotalcite interlayers

Photopolymerizations of intercalated 4-vinylbenzoate (VBA) and p-(or m-) phenylenediacrylates (PDA) were investigated in the presence of an anion exchange clay, hydrotalcite. UV irradiation of clay powder adsorbing VBA and 4-benzoylbenzoate (BBA) ions gave rise to the cyclodimerization of the olefin and a radical polymerization to form polyvinylbenzoate. The degree of the polymerization was 10–10³. The stereoregularity was investigated by NMR analysis and is discussed in relation to the state of molecular aggregation in the clay interlayers. In contrast to VBA, photoreaction of the intercalated PDAs resulted in the formation of oligomers in [2+2] cycloaddition manner, of which the polymerization degrees were rather low (up to ten at most). The stereochemistry of the oligomer was revealed to be of a syn-head-to-head structure by NMR analysis. Dianionic molecules such as PDAs showed an interesting intercalation behavior in contrast to monoanions, i.e. just one double-negatively charged molecule was estimated to occupy three anion exchange sites of the hydrotalcite layer. Also, the relatively low polymerization degrees of the PDAs were found to be due to the above intercalation characteristics. Powder X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the molecular aggregation state was remarkably changed by desiccating the clay composite in vacuum, thus suppressing the efficiency of the photoreaction.