Early stages of styrene-isoprene copolymerization in gas phase clusters probed by resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization.
We present direct evidence for the formation of the covalent bonded styrene (isoprene)(2) oligomer and the isoprene dimer ions following resonance ionization of the gas phase styrene-isoprene binary clusters. The application of resonance ionization to study polymerization reactions in clusters provides new information on the structure and mechanism of formation of the early stages of polymerization and holds considerable promise for the discovery of new initiation mechanisms and for the development of novel materials with unique properties.
Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284-2006, USA.
Hatem
H
Mahmoud
Igor N
IN
Germanenko
M Samy
MS
El-Shall