Mechanistic studies of the copolymerization between ethyl diazoacetate and cinnamaldehyde

Abstract

The N^diazo,C³-diradical of diazomethane (˙NN–H₂C˙) is a resonance structure with 1,3-dipole form. And alkyl diazoacetate (ethyl diazoacetate, EDA) can interact with α,β-unsaturated aldehyde (cinnamaldehyde, CA) without any catalyst to compose the N^diazo,C⁵- and N^diazo,C⁸-diradicals, which are the building species to produce the copolymer of EDA with CA through a sequential series of N^diazo,C^ω-diradical intermediates.