Raman spectroscopic study of the interaction of iodine with polyene sequences derived from the phase-transfer-catalyzed dehydrochlorination of poly(vinyl chloride)

Phase transfer catalysis has been shown to be an effective method for the dehydrochlorination of PVC to yield conjugated polyene sequences. The sequence lengths are not monodisperse; however, no very long sequences were detected by near-IR excited Raman spectroscopy. Doping the system with iodine gave an unusual material. Visible Raman spectra showed a slight decrease of conjugation length due to chain disruption, but the doped domains were generated with a short sequence length