The exact analysis of monomer distributions in copolymers is a big challenge in material science. The location of functional groups in the polymer backbone influences the properties of the resulting polymers significantly. Therefore it is very interesting to get the knowledge about monomer incorporation in chain growth reactions. The performance of 1H or 13C NMR kinetic studies in the NMR tube under the same conditions like in batch reactions enable the visualization of single monomer consumption and therefore the position of the functional units in the polymer backbone. This method reveal the information about statistical microstructures or the formation of gradient copolymers or even block-like structures.
Figure 1: Real-time 1H NMR spectra overlay showing the consumption of different monomers highlighted in blue and orange.
Figure 2: Corresponding visualization of the polymer chain for a copolymerization.