John M. Rooney

Carbocationic Polymerization: N -Vinylcarbazole

Two features which distinguish N-vinylcarbazole (9-vinylcarbazole, NVC) from most cationically polymerizable compounds are its physical form and its reactivity. Under ambient conditions, NVC is a white crystalline solid, purified readily, in principle, by repeated crystallization. Both the crystallinity and basicity of NVC are explained by reference to the molecular structure, in which the carbon–carbon double bond is attached directly to a large planar aromatic amine. The electronegative nitrogen atom withdraws electrons from the double bond through induction, but this depletion is more than offset by the tendency of nitrogen to donate its unshared electron-pair, thus creating an electron-rich double bond.1