Iodine reaction of vinyl acetate — vinyl propionate copolymers II. Dependence of iodine affinities of the copolymers on the sequence distribution of vinyl acetate-units

The reactions of iodine with vinyl acetate (VAc) — vinyl propionate (VPr) copolymers in aqueous solutions of potassium iodide were investigated photometrically. The iodine affinity (I/VAc) of VAc-units was defined as the number of bound iodine atoms per VAc-unit and determined from the absorbance of the formed colored complex. The dependence of the I/VAc values on the copolymer composition was discussed with respect to the sequence distribution of VAc-units in the copolymer chains. The dependence of the I/VAc value on the copolymer composition of block copolymers provided a useful information concerning the saponification of PVAc because the here used block copolymers were prepared by propionylation of partially saponified PVAc.