Nature of the carbonyl groups in polyvinyl alcohol

Abstract Measurements of the viscosity of polyvinyl alcohol solutions may be correlated with the chemical nature of the polymer. In particular it is shown that polyvinyl alcohol contains carbonyl groups in the polymer chain, which are to some extent present as ketols. The presence of these keto groups has been demonstrated by a combination of spectrophotometric and chemical techniques. The carbonyl groups appear to be randomly distributed along the polymer chain and also seem to be independent of chain length. The presence of keto groups along the chain allows an explanation for the behavior of aqueous polyvinyl alcohol solutions with acid or alkali.