Hydrolysis of polyacrylonitrile in aqueous solution of sodium carbonate

The kinetics of homogeneous hydrolysis of polyacrylonitrile in an aqueous solution of sodium carbonate and the chemical structure of the resulting copolymer are studied by FTIR spectroscopy, 13C NMR analysis, and titration methods. It is found that hydrolysis in the presence of sodium carbonate does not include the stage of amidine formation and does not result in the complete exhaustion of nitrile groups in a polymer. The designed partial-hydrolysis method permits the use of polyacrylonitrile for the synthesis of the copolymer with a predominant unit alternation; this copolymer is identical in terms of chemical structure to the Rohacell copolymer obtained through block copolymerization of acrylonitrile and methacrylic acid.