Structure of poly(N‐butyl isocyanate)

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Abstract
An x‐ray study of poly(N‐butyl isocyanate) (PBIC) was undertaken with the aim of providing the structural information required for the calculation of its ultraviolet absorption spectrum. Well defined diffraction patterns are obtained from powder samples and oriented films of the polymer cast from cyclohexane solution. All the reflections can be satisfactorily indexed in terms of a pseudo‐hexagonal unit cell with a = 13.3 Å and c = 15.4 Å. This indexing and the intensity distribution lead to the conclusion that PBIC has a helical structure with a translation of 1.94 Å and a rotation of 135° per monomeric unit (i.e., the c axis corresponds to 8 units in 3 helical turns). In the absence of single‐crystal data on closely similar model compounds, a range of possible bond lengths and angles was assumed. The atomic coordinates of the chromophoric group of PBIC were then computed using the restrictions imposed by the helical parameters. From an investigation of all the assumed range of bond lengths and angles, a few closely similar structures having no unacceptably short van der Waals contacts were found. A comparison of calculated and measured densities indicates that there are two molecules per unit cell. Construction of space‐filling models of PBIC supports this conclusion.

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