AbstractPhotosensitive copolymers have been obtained by chemical modification of natural rubber. The introduction of the photoreactive cinnamoyl group in different conversions has been carried out by the reaction of natural polyisoprene with maleic anhydride, followed by ring opening and condensation with some oxyalkylcinnamate esters. These reactions gave rise to five polymer series. Each series, for which the anhydride content was kept constant, is constituted of five copolymeric products, differing from each other in the size of the aliphatic chain between the chromophore and the main chain. The photosensitive products were submitted to UV irradiation, and their kinetic behavior has been investigated in order to correlate structural dissimilarities with the dimerization rate constants.
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