Hi I have been experimenting with using hydrolysis of diethylaluminium chloride to determine the water ( or other catalyst active species) in butadiene or solutions of butadiene in other solvents by measuring the ethane levels in the headspace of the reaction vessel by gas chromatography. On adding deac to 99% butadiene saturated with water I got a virtually instant reaction that produced about 5 grams of polymeric material ( from about 150 gram of butadiene). I would like to understand what the polymer and mechanism is and why the reaction stopped when it did. Is it a cationic reaction of some sort?
thanks
Terry