Patent ID: 7667045

Claim:
A method of forming a poly (5-vinyl)tetrazole, the method including the steps of: providing a reaction vessel; adding water to the reaction vessel; adding at least one aide salt to the reaction vessel; adding at least one surfactant to the reaction vessel; adding a polyacrylonitrile polymer to the reaction vessel, wherein the order of adding the water, azide salt, surfactant and the polyacrylonitrile polymer to the reactant vessel may be varied; mixing the contents of the reaction vessel into a liquid aqueous mixture void of organic solvent; heating the contents of the reaction vessel consisting of the liquid aqueous mixture, thereby reacting the contents of the reaction vessel; cooling the contents of the reaction vessel; filtering the contents of the reaction vessel to produce a filtrate; washing the filtrate with water to produce a filtrate/water mixture; acidifying the filtrate/water mixture to a pH of about 1-3 and stirring the same, to form an acidified filtrate/water mixture; filtering the acidified filtrate/water mixture to separate a solid from the acidified filtrate/water mixture; suspending the solid in water and adding an excess amount of a base to the suspension while stirring the same; dissolving the solid in the base/water mixture to form a slurry; and pouring the slurry into a container and drying the slurry to form the poly(5-vinyltetrazole).