Polyacrylonitrile, poly(styrene-acrylonitrile) and poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) complexes with transition metal salts have been synthesized. The synthesis were attempted by carrying out free radical polymerization reactions in aqueous transition metal salt solutions (ZnCl 2 , CuCl 2 , CoCl 2 , CoSO 4 , NiSO 4 , CuSO 4 ) and by addition of the transition metal salts to the reaction mixture in the final stage of the polymerization. It is shown experimentally and theoretically that the first method is successful only when zinc chloride is used, while the cobalt, nickel, copper complexes are formed through the addition of the salts to the ready polymers. Reactions that take place during studied complexations were investigated by means of ab initio quantum chemistry calculations, thermodynamic parameters for these reactions were determined.
Thermodynamic parameters of formation reactions of polymer complexes of transition metals (ZnCl2, CuCl2, NiCl2, СоС12) were obtained using the PBE96/SVP computational level. Chemical processes taking place during both direct copolymerizations in the presence of transition metal salts and at introduction of transition metal salts at final step of polymerization were considered. The success of formation reaction of polymer complexes was theoretically based with the radical polymerization into solutions of transition metal salts in the presence of zink chloride only.