The complexes of linear 4-vinylpyridine-methyl vinyl ketone copolymers as ligands with tetracarbonyldichlorodirhodium have been found to be able to catalyze the methanol carbony-lation to produce acetic acid in a mild reaction condition. Experimental results show that these macromolecular complexes contain cis-dicarbonyl rhodium structure. There are two coordination bonds

N→Rh and O→Rh

which form the following two coordination units in the copolymer complexes:Experiments reveal that catalytic reactivity of the complexes is increasing with the aug-mentation of O→Rh bonds

while thermal stability of the complexes is elevating with the growth of N→Rh bonds content.