CHEMICAL REACTIONS ON POLYMERS: NEW ROUTES FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF REACTIVE GROUPS ONTO CROSSLINKED POLYSTYRENE RESINS.

Polymers containing reactive functionalities have been used extensively in a variety of applications from supports for solid-phase syntheses to separation media or catalysts. In a number of cases it is desirable to prepare the reactive polymers by chemical modification of crosslinked polystyrene resins as these possess desirable properties. Though it is relatively easy to introduce reactive groups onto polystyrene, special care should be taken to ensure that no side-products are formed since their removal from the polymer is generally not possible. To this effect, series of simple and quantitative chemical modification steps have been developed which introduce a variety of reactive functionalities as pendant groups onto some of the aromatic rings of the polystyrene resins. Typically these include hydroxyethyl tosyloxyethyl; primary, secondary, tertiary amine, quaternary ammonium, pyridone, and other functional groups. The use of phase-transfer catalysis in these modifications is also discussed.