ABSTRACT:A method for evaluating the pentad tacticity of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was proposed by analyzing the splittings of the CN carbon NMR peak with high magnetic field 13 C NMR. The method was applied to PAN prepared by polymerization with a redox catalyst (R-PAN). The results showed that R-PAN is completely random in stereoregularity and the peak assignment for CN and CH carbons of R-PAN, formerly carried out for evaluating the triad tacticity, was confirmed as correct.KEY WORDS Polyacrylonitrile / 13 C NMR / Triad Tacticity / Pentad Tacticity / Bernoulli Statistics / So far numerous studies on the stereoregularity of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) have been carried out by 1 H NMR analysis. 1 -12 By analyzing CH 2 proton signals of partially deuterated PAN in solvents which make the CH 2 proton magnetically equivalent or nonequivalent, Yoshino et al. 6 concluded that PAN prepared by y-ray irradiation on the ure<,1-acrylonitrile canal complex (y-PAN) is rich in the meso (m) configuration in diad tacticity, compared with that of PAN prepared by a redox catalyst (R-PAN). Schaefer 13 and Inoue et al. 14 have recently proposed methods for determining the triad tacticity of PAN by using 13 C NMR technique at 25.14MHz. They observed three peaks in both CN and CH carbon peak regions and assigned these three peaks from a lower magnetic field to isotactic (I), heterotactic (H), and syndiotactic (S) triads for CN carbon peaks and the reverse for CH carbon peaks, assuming that the largest peak in y-PAN is attributable to I triad. Obviously, their assignment cannot be unconditionally accepted because an abundance of m diads in y-PAN increases the intensity of the NMR peaks not only for the I triad but also the H triad and if the randomness of the R-PAN can be confirmed by other methods than NMR methods, the assignment can be rigorously performed.Recently, we have found, by using a higher magnetic field (l 00. 7 MHz) 13 C NMR spectrometer, that each peak attributable to I, H, and S triads in CN carbon region is moreover constituted of three or four peak components.