Active centers activity

The kinetics and mechanism of olefin polymerization can be elucidated from the dependences of the number, reactivity and selectivity of the active centers (active sites, polymerization centers) on ... 

Active center Active bond Olefin E (kcal/mol) ... 

Free radical polymerization is the most widely used process in PVDF synthesis. It involves the reaction of VDF and other comonomers with active center followed by successive addition of monomer(s) under the condition in which monomers cannot react with each other without intervention of the active center. Active centers are generated by thermal decomposition of initiator and in some cases by photoinitiation of the catalyst. The average lifetime of each active center (free radical) is approximately few seconds depending on the degree of polymerization and the initiator concentration. For successful polymerization, the sequence of reaction must take place. 

New active center Active center (d) Transition state (c)... 

A propagation step involving growth around an active center follows RCH2—CHCl -h CH2=CHC1 —> RCH2—CHCl—CH2—CHCl and so on, leading to molecules of the structure... 

Calculate also the activation energy for the reaction, again in kcal/mol, assuming that the Coulomb repulsion maximizes at 3 -y 10 cm separation of the nuclear centers. Assuming a successful cold-fusion device, how many fusions per second would generate one horsepower (1 hp) if the conversion of heat into work were 10% efficient ... 

For many applications, especially studies on enzyme reaction mechanisms, we do not need to treat the entire system quantum mechanically. It is often sufficient to treat the center of interest (e.g., the active site and the reacting molecules) quantum mechanically. The rest of the molecule can be treated using classical molecular mechanics (MM see Section 7.2). The quantum mechanical technique can be ab-initio, DFT or semi-empirical. Many such techniques have been proposed and have been reviewed and classified by Thiel and co-workers [50] Two effects of the MM environment must be incorporated into the quantum mechanical system. 

This section is organized according to the electrophilic center presented to the nucleophilic nitrogen of the active species. This organization allow s a consistent treatment of the reactivity. However, a small drawback arises when ambident electrophilic centers are considered, and these cases are treated as if the more reactive center were known, which is not always the case. 

The amino group activates the thiazole ring toward electrophilic centers. This point is illustrated by the rate constants of the reaction between 2-dialkylaminothiazoles (32) and methyl iodide in nitromethane at 25 C (Scheme 23) (158). The steric effects of substituents on nitrogen are... 

The terminal amino group of 2-hydrazino-4-phenylthiazole is also the reactive center in reactions with activated aryl halides such as 288. A solution of the product (289) obtained from this reaction when shaken with PbOj gives a deeply colored radical, whose structure has been studied by ESR (Scheme 173) (532. 533). 

Section 7 9 A chemical reaction can convert an achiral substance to a chiral one If the product contains a single chirality center it is formed as a racemic mixture Optically active products can be formed from optically inactive... 

The same cannot be said about reactions with alkyl halides as substrates The conver Sion of optically active 2 octanol to the corresponding halide does involve a bond to the chirality center and so the optical purity and absolute configuration of the alkyl halide need to be independently established... 

Our analysis of substituent effects has so far centered on two groups methyl and triflu oromethyl We have seen that a methyl substituent is activating and ortho para directing A trifluoromethyl group is strongly deactivating and meta directing What about other substituents ... 

If the a carbon atom of an aldehyde or a ketone is a chnality center its stereo chemical integrity is lost on enolization Enolization of optically active sec butyl phenyl ketone leads to its racemization by way of the achiral enol form... 

Each act of proton abstraction from the a carbon converts a chiral molecule to an achi ral enol or enolate ion The sp hybridized carbon that is the chirality center m the start mg ketone becomes sp hybridized m the enol or enolate Careful kinetic studies have established that the rate of loss of optical activity of sec butyl phenyl ketone is equal to Its rate of hydrogen-deuterium exchange its rate of brommation and its rate of lodma tion In each case the rate determining step is conversion of the starting ketone to the enol or enolate anion... 

As shown for the aldotetroses an aldose belongs to the d or the l series accord mg to the configuration of the chirality center farthest removed from the aldehyde func tion Individual names such as erythrose and threose specify the particular arrangement of chirality centers within the molecule relative to each other Optical activities cannot be determined directly from the d and l prefixes As if furns ouf bofh d eryfhrose and D fhreose are levorofafory buf d glyceraldehyde is dexfrorofafory... 

Chirality and Optical Activity. A compound is chiral (the term dissymmetric was formerly used) if it is not superimposable on its mirror image. A chiral compound does not have a plane of symmetry. Each chiral compound possesses one (or more) of three types of chiral element, namely, a chiral center, a chiral axis, or a chiral plane. 

Multiple Chiral Centers. The number of stereoisomers increases rapidly with an increase in the number of chiral centers in a molecule. A molecule possessing two chiral atoms should have four optical isomers, that is, four structures consisting of two pairs of enantiomers. However, if a compound has two chiral centers but both centers have the same four substituents attached, the total number of isomers is three rather than four. One isomer of such a compound is not chiral because it is identical with its mirror image it has an internal mirror plane. This is an example of a diaster-eomer. The achiral structure is denoted as a meso compound. Diastereomers have different physical and chemical properties from the optically active enantiomers. Recognition of a plane of symmetry is usually the easiest way to detect a meso compound. The stereoisomers of tartaric acid are examples of compounds with multiple chiral centers (see Fig. 1.14), and one of its isomers is a meso compound. 

In enzymes, this folding process is crucial to their activity as catalysts, with part of the structure as the center of reactivity. Heating enzymes (or other treatments) destroys their three-dimensional structure so stops further action. For example, in winemaking, the rising alcohol content eventually denatures the enzymes responsible for turning sugar into alcohol, and fermentation stops. 

The addition polymerization of a vinyl monomer CH2=CHX involves three distinctly different steps. First, the reactive center must be initiated by a suitable reaction to produce a free radical or an anion or cation reaction site. Next, this reactive entity adds consecutive monomer units to propagate the polymer chain. Finally, the active site is capped off, terminating the polymer formation. If one assumes that the polymer produced is truly a high molecular weight substance, the lack of uniformity at the two ends of the chain—arising in one case from the initiation, and in the other from the termination-can be neglected. Accordingly, the overall reaction can be written... 

Propagation. The initiator fragment reacts with a monomer M to begin the conversion to polymer the center of activity is retained in the adduct. Monomers continue to add in some way until molecules are formed with degree of polymerization n ... 

Termination. By some reaction, generally involving two polymers containing active centers, the growth center is deactivated, resulting in dead polymer ... 

The active centers that characterize addition polymerization are of two types free radicals and ions. Throughout most of this chapter we shall focus attention on the free-radical species, since these lend themselves most readily to generalization. Ionic polymerizations not only proceed through different kinds of intermediates but, as a consequence, yield quite different polymers. Depending on the charge of the intermediate, ionic polymerizations are classified as anionic or cationic. These two types of polymerization are discussed in Secs. 6.10 and 6.11, respectively. 

In this section we discuss the initiation step of free-radical polymerization. This discussion is centered around initiators and their decomposition behavior. The first requirement for an initiator is that it be a source of free radicals. In addition, the radicals must be produced at an acceptable rate at convenient temperatures have the required solubility behavior transfer their activity to... 

The kinds of vinyl monomers which undergo anionic polymerization are those with electron-withdrawing substituents such as the nitrile, carboxyl, and phenyl groups. We represent the catalysts as AB in this discussion these are substances which break into a cation (A ) and an anion (B ) under the conditions of the reaction. In anionic polymerization it is the basic anion which adds across the double bond of the monomer to form the active center for polymerization ... 

The reaction medium plays a very important role in all ionic polymerizations. Likewise, the nature of the ionic partner to the active center-called the counterion or gegenion-has a large effect also. This is true because the nature of the counterion, the polarity of the solvent, and the possibility of specific solvent-ion interactions determines the average distance of separation between the ions in solution. It is not difficult to visualize a whole spectrum of possibilities, from completely separated ions to an ion pair of partially solvated ions to an ion pair of unsolvated ions. The distance between the centers of the ions is different in... 

The molecular weight distribution for a polymer like that described above is remarkably narrow compared to free-radical polymerization or even to ionic polymerization in which transfer or termination occurs. The sharpness arises from the nearly simultaneous initiation of all chains and the fact that all active centers grow as long as monomer is present. The following steps outline a quantitative treatment of this effect ... 

The first monomer addition to the active center occurs by the reaction... 

Figure 6.11 Comparison of the number distribution of n-mers for polymers prepared from anionic and free-radical active centers, both with f = 50.

These are addition polymerizations in which chain growth is propagated through an active center. The latter could be a free radical or an ion we shall see that coordinate intermediates is the more usual case. 

The active-center chain end is open to front or rear attack in general hence the configuration of a repeat unit is not fixed until the next unit attaches to the growing chain. 

The main conclusion we wish to draw from this line of development is that the difference between Ej and E could vary widely, depending on the nature o the active center. 

If the active center in a polymerization is a free radical unencumbered b interaction with any surrounding species, we would expect Ej -Eg to be small... 

The probabilities of the various dyad, triad, and other sequences that we have examined have all been described by a single probability parameter p. When we used the same kind of statistics for copolymers, we called the situation one of terminal control. We are considering similar statistics here, but the idea that the stereochemistry is controlled by the terminal unit is inappropriate. The active center of the chain end governs the chemistry of the addition, but not the stereochemistry. Neither the terminal unit nor any other repeat unit considered alone has any stereochemistry. Equations (7.62) and (7.63) merely state that an addition must be of one kind or another, but that the rates are not necessarily identical. 

The bimetallic mechanism is illustrated in Fig. 7.13b the bimetallic active center is the distinguishing feature of this mechanism. The precise distribution of halides and alkyls is not spelled out because of the exchanges described by reaction (7.Q). An alkyl bridge is assumed based on observations of other organometallic compounds. The pi coordination of the olefin with the titanium is followed by insertion of the monomer into the bridge to propagate the reaction. 

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