Nuclear magnetic resonance structural characterization of sulfur-derived copolymers from inverse vulcanization. Part 1: Styrene

Organosulfur polymers prepared via the inverse vulcanization of elemental sulfur with olefinic comonomers represent a new class of high-chalcogenide content organic/inorganic macromolecules. Extensive reporting on new synthetic advances and materials derived from the inverse vulcanization process have been explored in the past decade. However, detailed structural analysis of these sulfur copolymers have not been rigorously conducted, due to the poor solubility of many of these materials, coupled with the numerous side-reactions that result in complex microstructures from these synthetic methods. In the current report, we revisit analysis of the solution 13C NMR spectral data for poly(S-r-Sty) and identify for the first time previously unidentified carbon peaks that offer new insights into a corrected repeating unit structure of this sulfur copolymer.