Anionic chain polymerization 1,3-dienes

The ionic chain polymerization of unsaturated linkages is considered in this chapter, primarily the polymerization of the carbon-carbon double bond by cationic and anionic initiators (Secs. 5-2 and 5-3). The last part of the chapter considers the polymerization of other unsaturated linkages. Polymerizations initiated by coordination and metal oxide initiators are usually also ionic in nature. These are called coordination polymerizations and are considered separately in Chap. 8. Ionic polymerizations of cyclic monomers is discussed in Chap. 7. The polymerization of conjugated dienes is considered in Chap. 8. Cyclopolymerization of nonconjugated dienes is discussed in Chap. 6. 

They are based on various metals. Such as zirconium, complexed with cyclopentadienide anions. This type of compound is called a zirconocene and is used with organoalu-minum to make highly regular polymers. The catalyst has the ability to flip back and forth from making atactic to isotactic polypropylene in the same polymerization. The alternating tacticity of the polymer breaks up the crystallinity of the chains and yields an elastomer. Metallocene catalysts are currently very expensive and cannot yet polymerize dienes such as butadiene, so they have only enjoyed limited commercial success in elastomers. However, this is one of the most intense fields of polymer research and many new product breakthroughs are expected in the near future. 

With the purpose of increasing the range of available block copolymers, comonomers other than methacrylates and acrylates can also be involved in sequential polymerization, provided that they are susceptible to anionic polymerization. Dienes, styrene derivatives, vinylpyridines , oxiranes and cyclosiloxanes are examples of such comonomers. The order of the sequential addition is, however, of critical importance for the synthesis to be successful. Indeed, the pX a of the conjugated acid of the living chain-end of the first block must be at least equal to or even larger than that of the second monomer. Translated to a nucleophilicity scale, this pK effect results in the following order of reactivity dienes styrenes > vinylpyridines > methacrylates and acrylates > oxiranes > siloxanes. 

Further developments in the field of chain polymerization were centered on radical poly-addition. Its mechanism was firmly established in the 1930 s and attracted much attention. The interest in anionic polymerization was marginal and the activities in this field were centered at that time around Ziegler in Germany and Lebedev in Russia. Both groups were interested in polymerization of styrene and dienes initiated by sodium metal and their work led to industrial production of synthetic rubber marketed by I. G. Far-benindustrie as Buna . 

Classification of Polymers Free-Radical Chain-Growth Polymerization Cationic Chain-Growth Polymerization Anionic Chain-Growth Polymerization Stereoregular Polymers Ziegler-Natta Polymerization A WORD ABOUT... Polyacetylene and Conducting Polymers Diene Polymers Natural and Synthetic Rubber Copolymers... 

Solvents. The choice of suitable solvents for anionic polymerization is determined in part by the reactivity (basicity and nucleophihcity) of initiators and propagating anionic chain ends. For styrene and diene monomers, the solvents of... 

This chapter describes the general aspects of anionic polymerization of nonpolar vinyl monomers such as styrenes and 1,3-dienes. Anionic polymerization is defined as a chain polymerization in which the active centers are anions, in the form of... 

Substituent groups on the double bond must stabilize the negative charge that develops in the transition state for the monomer addition step. They must also be stable to reactive anionic chain ends [13, p. 94]. Monomers that can be polymerized anionically include vinyl, diene and some carbonyl-type and cyclic monomers. We note that because of its lack of any substituent group, polyethylene cannot be polymerized anionically. We describe in a later section how to make a living polymer that is very similar to polyethylene. 

Surprisingly, after this very first example, there was a 20 year delay in the literature in the appearance of the second report on siloxane macromonomers. However, during this period there have been numerous studies and developments in the vinyl and diene based macromonomers91 -94). The recent approach to the synthesis of siloxane macromonomers involves the lithiumtrimethylsilanolate initiated anionic polymerization of hexamethyltrisiloxane in THF 95,123). The living chain ends were then terminated by using styrene or methacrylate functional chlorosilanes as shown in Reaction Scheme X. 

The first unequivocal proof of feasibility of homogeneous polymerization free of termination and chain-transfer was reported in 1956, and the concept of living polymers and its ramifications were fully developed in those publications 2). Although the initial work dealt with anionic polymerization of styrene and the dienes, the underlying ideas were soon applied by other workers to a great variety of polymeric systems, as shown by the brief review of some of those developed recently. 

Analogous principles should apply to ionically propagated polymerizations. The terminus of the growing chain, whether cation or anion, can be expected to exhibit preferential addition to one or the other carbon of the vinyl group. Poly isobutylene, normally prepared by cationic polymerization, possesses the head-to-tail structure, as already mentioned. Polystyrenes prepared by cationic or anionic polymerization are not noticeably different from free-radical-poly-merized products of the same molecular weights, which fact indicates a similar chain structure irrespective of the method of synthesis. In the polymerization of 1,3-dienes, however, the structure and arrangement of the units depends markedly on the chain-propagating mechanism (see Sec. 2b). 

The alkyllithium-initiated, anionic polymerization of vinyl and diene monomers can often be performed without the incursion of spontaneous termination or chain transfer reactions (1). The non-terminating nature of these reactions has provided methods for the synthesis of polymers with predictable molecular weights and narrow molecular weight distributions (2). In addition, these polymerizations generate polymer chains with stable, carbanionic chain ends which, in principle, can be converted into a diverse array of functional end groups using the rich and varied chemistry of organolithium compounds (3). 

In addition to the triblock thermoplastic elastomers, other useful copolymers of styrene with a diene are produced commerically by living anionic polymerization. These include di-and multiblock copolymers, random copolymers, and tapered block copolymers. A tapered (gradient) copolymer has a variation in composition along the polymer chain. For example, S-S/D-D is a tapered block polymer that tapers from a polystyrene block to a styrene-diene random copolymer to polydiene block. (Tapered polymers need not have pure blocks at their ends. One can have a continuously tapered composition from styrene to diene by... 

There is no mechanism that adequately explains all features of the anionic polymerization of 1,3-dienes. NMR data indicate the presence of it- and cr-bonded propagating chains (L and LI) When reaction occurs in polar solvents, the carbanion center is delocalized as both... 

Ionic polymerizations are remarkable in the variety of polymer steric structures that are produced by variation of the solvent or the counter ion. The long lived nature of the active chain ends in the anionic polymerization of diene and styrene type monomers lends itself to studies of their structure and properties which might have relevance to the structure of the polymer produced when these chain ends add further monomer. One of the tools that, may be used in the characterization of these ion pairs is the NMR spectrometer. However, it should always be appreciated that, the conditions in the NMR tube are frequently far removed from those in the actual polymerization. Furthermore NMR observes the equilibrium form on a long time scale, and this is not necessarily that form present at the moment of polymerization. 

Anionic polymerization of conjugated dienes and olefins retains its lithium on the chain ends as being active moities and capable of propagating additional monomer. This distinguishing feature has an advantage over other methods of polymerization such as radical, cationic and Ziegler polymerization. Many attempts have been made to prepare block copolymers by the above methods, but they were not successful in preparing the clear characterized block copolymer produced by anionic technique. 

When a mixture of styrene and 1,3-butadiene (or isoprene) undergoes lithium-initiated anionic polymerization in hydrocarbon solution, the diene polymerizes first. It is unexpected, since styrene when polymerized alone, is more reactive than, for example, 1,3-butadiene. The explanation is based on the differences of the rates of the four possible propagation reactions the rate of the reaction of the styryl chain end with butadiene (crossover rate) is much faster than the those of the other three reactions484,485 (styryl with styrene, butadienyl with butadiene or styrene). This means that the styryl chain end reacts preferentially with butadiene. 

Natta carried out the anionic polymerization of methyl sorbate, a 1,3-diene, with an optically active initiator and obtained an optically active homopolymer with main-chain chirality. The high molecular weight crystalline polymer produced with (P)-2-methylbutyllithium had a tritactic (di-iso-rra/w-tactic) structure. This was probably the first metal-catalyzed asymmetric polymerization 134). Polymerization of other dienes was attempted by using various asymmetric methods 135). 

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