Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1958. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references: leaves 157-160.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-194).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-109).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-94).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1950. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [159]-160).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic version.

No description available.

The alternating copolymerization of carbon monoxide with olefin is one of the very new field in the polymer chemistry. The ultimate goal of the dissertation work is to gain a broad knowledge about this polymerization reaction as well as the properties of the alternating copolymers. The alternating copolymerization of carbon monoxide with ethylene was systematic investigated using the catalyst system of (Pd(CH$\sb3$CN)$\sb4$) (BF$\sb4)\sb2$/phosphine complexes. Palladium bisphosphine complex has been found to be far more active and more stable than the monodente phosphine Pd catalyst. Methanol is a co-initiator as well as a chain transfer agent. Protonic acid enhances the rate of copolymerization but causes chain transfer. In the absence of methanol, the copolymerization was characterized by long induction period and slow rate. The end groups of alternating copolymers were isotope labeled (using radioactive isotope labeled methanol or deuterated methanol) and analyzed. The chain transfer reactions are alcoholysis of palladium acyl bond or $\beta$-hydrogen elimination reaction. The overall copolymerization mechanism was discussed. (Pd(CH$\sb3$CN)$\sb4$) (BF$\sb4)\sb2$/bisphosphine catalysts and methanol as co-initiator were found to be very active for the alternating copolymerization of carbon monoxide with propylene, 1-butene and 1-hexene. The palladium catalyst with bis(diphenylphosphino)propane shows higher activity but moderate regioselectivity. The catalyst with (-)DIOP has better regioselectivity and produces semi-crystalline CO/propylene alternating copolymer. The thermodegradation of alternating copolymer of carbon monoxide with ethylene was also studied using pyrolysis GC-Mass spectroscopy. Carbon monoxide, ethylene, water and oligomers of ketones were identified as volatile products during the thermodegradation.

The preparation of a variety of lactone and olefin homopolymers and their copolymers using alkyl aluminoxanes and soluble Ziegler-Natta catalysts was studied. After investigation of a variety of soluble Ziegler-Natta cocatalyst and alkyl-aluminoxanes, either bis(cyclopentadienyl)zirconium dichloride, Cp$\sb2$ZrCl$\sb2$, or ethylene bis(tetrahydroindenyl)zirconium dichloride, Et(ThInd)$\sb2$ZrCl$\sb2$, with isobutylaluminoxane, IBAO, were found to be very effective for the copolymerizations, so these catalyst systems were used throughout this thesis research program. In order to vary the type of functionality and biodegradability, the possible copolymerization of lactones (including $\beta$-butyrolactone ($\beta$-BL), $\varepsilon$-caprolactone (CL), $\gamma$-butyrolactone ($\gamma$-BL), and DL-lactide (DL-L)) and olefin containing monomers (including styrene (S), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and ethyl acrylate (EA)) were studied. Many of these copolymers were synthesized for the first time in this study. The characterization results showed that some of these copolymers had high molecular weights, narrow polydispersities, unimodal GPC chromatograms and single values of glass transition temperatures (T$\sb{\rm g}$), and they were also totally amorphous. These results indicate that they were true copolymers.