Investigation of the formation and properties of water-soluble conjugates of polymer p-nitrophenyl esters with polymer primary amines

UV spectroscopy was used to study the kinetics of intermolecular covalent interactions in the following system: a copolymer of N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide with p-nitrophenyl ester of p-methacryloylaminophenoxyacetic acid — a copolymer of N-vinylpyrrolidone with vinyl- or allylamine in dilute solutions in DMSO or in concentrated solutions in DMFA at 298 K. It was established that the rate of the investigated reaction leading to the preparation of water-soluble branched polymers depends on the chemical nature of the polymer p-nitrophenyl ester and polymer amine and on the molar ratio of the reacting components, as well as the existence of additional interactions inside the polymer coil and on its conformation. The method of molecular hydrodynamics were used to study the products of polymer–polymer reactions. It was found that depending on reaction conditions polymer–polymer conjugates with different structures and different molecular weights (including conjugates with MSD values higher by one order of magnitude than those of the initial reactive copolymers) can be obtained.