A characteristic feature of the cationic polymeriza tion of conjugated dienes is the ability of the double bonds of a macromolecule to undergo further trans formations, which result in branched structures and a decrease in the unsaturation of polydienes [1,2]. Moreover, the cationic polymerization of 1,3 dienes as a rule has a pronounced non stationary character [2][3][4][5]. This feature hinders the correct use of known methods for the calculation of propagation rate con stants [1,6,7] based on the measurement of number average polymerization degree. At the same time, there is no information in the literature on the propa gation and termination rate constants of the cationic polymerization of 1,3 dienes. This work deals with the development of a new method for the determination of propagation rate constants for the cationic polymerization of 1,3 dienes. The cationic polymerization of 1,3 pentadi ene catalyzed by TiCl 4 -CF 3 COOD is used as an example.Preparation of initial reagents and polymerization procedure are described in [4,5]. The catalyst was deactivated with a mixture of propylene oxide and methanol [5]. Deuterated trifluoroacetic acid (DTFA, Fluka, >99%) and deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide (Fluka, >99.9%) were used without additional purifi cation. The synthesized polymers prior to analyses were purified from catalyst residues by column chro matography on silica gel (Silica Gel 60, Fluka), using chloroform as an eluent. The 1 H and 2 H NMR spectra of the polymer (CDCl 3 solvent) were recorded on a Bruker Avance 600 spectrometer with a scan number of at least 800 and a repetition time of 5 s. Deuterium content in the polymer was calculated relative to the known weight of internal reference introduced into a polymer solution.The polymerization of 1,3 pentadiene in the pres ence of the TiCl 4 -DTFA catalytic system in a methyl ene chloride medium proceeds at a high initial rate (Fig. 1, curve 2). The polymerization rate decreases when the monomer conversion reaches 45-50 wt %, and further polymerization of 1,3 pentadiene pro ceeds at a rather low constant rate until complete monomer consumption. In the absence of DTFA in the catalytic system, the polymerization under the action of TiCl 4 proceeds at a very low rate (Fig. 1, curve 1). The prepared poly(1,3 pentadiene) (PPD) has a molecular weight of 3.7-3.8 × 10 3 g/mol and a dispersity of 2.5-2.6.The formation of the active center can be thought to result from the reaction of DTFA and TiCl 4 fol lowed by the insertion of deuterium into the first 1,3 pentadiene molecule (Scheme 1). 80 0 3 0 Time, s Conversion, wt % 60 40 20 20 10 2 1 Fig. 1. Time dependence of 1,3 pentadiene conversion upon polymerization in the presence of (1) TiCl 4 and (2) TiCl 4 -DTFA catalytic system. Polymerization condi tions for all figures: [DTFA]/[TiCl 4 ] = 2.0, [TiCl 4 ] = 1.5 × 10 -2 mol/L, [C 5 H 8 ] = 4.0 mol/L, -78°C, CH 2 Cl 2 .