Anionic polymerization styrene derivatives

Another investigation along this line is the pulse radiolysis study of the electron transfer reactions from aromatic radical anions to styrene this type of reaction is commonly used to initiate anionic polymerization of styrene [35], The electron transfer rates from the unassociated biphenyl radical-anions to styrene derivatives in 2-propanol were found to increase along the... 

Radical copolymerization is used in the manufacturing of random copolymers of acrylamide with vinyl monomers. Anionic copolymers are obtained by copolymerization of acrylamide with acrylic, methacrylic, maleic, fu-maric, styrenesulfonic, 2-acrylamide-2-methylpro-panesulfonic acids and its salts, etc., as well as by hydrolysis and sulfomethylation of polyacrylamide Cationic copolymers are obtained by copolymerization of acrylamide with jV-dialkylaminoalkyl acrylates and methacrylates, l,2-dimethyl-5-vinylpyridinum sulfate, etc. or by postreactions of polyacrylamide (the Mannich reaction and Hofmann degradation). Nonionic copolymers are obtained by copolymerization of acrylamide with acrylates, methacrylates, styrene derivatives, acrylonitrile, etc. Copolymerization methods are the same as the polymerization of acrylamide. 

The mechanism of anionic polymerization of styrene and its derivatives is well known and documented, and does not require reviewing. Polymerization initiated in hydrocarbon solvents by lithium alkyls yields dimeric dormant polymers, (P, Li)2, in equilibrium with the active monomeric chains, P, Li, i.e. 

Applying these methodologies monomers such as isobutylene, vinyl ethers, styrene and styrenic derivatives, oxazolines, N-vinyl carbazole, etc. can be efficiently polymerized leading to well-defined structures. Compared to anionic polymerization cationic polymerization requires less demanding experimental conditions and can be applied at room temperature or higher in many cases, and a wide variety of monomers with pendant functional groups can be used. Despite the recent developments in cationic polymerization the method cannot be used with the same success for the synthesis of well-defined complex copolymeric architectures. 

With conventional techniques and electrolytes, it was not possible to obtain living anions because they are rapidly protonated by tetraalkylammonium salts and residual water. The first report of the production of living polymers by an electrolytic method has to be attributed to Yamazald et al. [247], who used tetrahydrofuran as solvent, and LiAlH4 or NaAl(C2H5)4 as electrolyte for the polymerization of a-methylstyrene. A similar technique was used to polymerize styrene as well as derivatives [248-252]. 

Based on this approach Schouten et al. [254] attached a silane-functionalized styrene derivative (4-trichlorosilylstyrene) on colloidal silica as well as on flat glass substrates and silicon wafers and added a five-fold excess BuLi to create the active surface sites for LASIP in toluene as the solvent. With THF as the reaction medium, the BuLi was found to react not only with the vinyl groups of the styrene derivative but also with the siloxane groups of the substrate. It was found that even under optimized reaction conditions, LASIP from silica and especially from flat surfaces could not be performed in a reproducible manner. Free silanol groups at the surface as well as the ever-present impurities adsorbed on silica, impaired the anionic polymerization. However, living anionic polymerization behavior was found and the polymer load increased linearly with the polymerization time. Polystyrene homopolymer brushes as well as block copolymers of poly(styrene-f)lock-MMA) and poly(styrene-block-isoprene) could be prepared. 

Alkyl derivatives of the alkaline-earth metals have also been used to initiate anionic polymerization. Organomagnesium compounds are considerably less active than organolithiums, as a result of the much less polarized metal-carbon bond. They can only initiate polymerization of monomers more reactive than styrene and 1,3-dienes, such as 2- and 4-vinylpyridines, and acrylic and methacrylic esters. Organostrontium and organobarium compounds, possessing more polar metal-carbon bonds, are able to polymerize styrene and 1,3-dienes as well as the more reactive monomers. 

Polymerization of isobutylene, in contrast, is the most characteristic example of all acid-catalyzed hydrocarbon polymerizations. Despite its hindered double bond, isobutylene is extremely reactive under any acidic conditions, which makes it an ideal monomer for cationic polymerization. While other alkenes usually can polymerize by several different propagation mechanisms (cationic, anionic, free radical, coordination), polyisobutylene can be prepared only via cationic polymerization. Acid-catalyzed polymerization of isobutylene is, therefore, the most thoroughly studied case. Other suitable monomers undergoing cationic polymerization are substituted styrene derivatives and conjugated dienes. Superacid-catalyzed alkane selfcondensation (see Section 5.1.2) and polymerization of strained cycloalkanes are also possible.118... 

The first results of anionic polymerization (the polymerization of 1,3-butadiene and isoprene induced by sodium and potassium) appeared in the literature in the early twentieth century.168,169 It was not until the pioneering work of Ziegler170 and Szwarc,171 however, that the real nature of the reaction was understood. Styrene derivatives and conjugated dienes are the most suitable unsaturated hydrocarbons for anionic polymerization. They are sufficiently electrophilic toward carbanionic centers and able to form stable carbanions on initiation. Simple alkenes (ethylene, propylene) do not undergo anionic polymerization and form only oligomers. Initiation is achieved by nucleophilic addition of organometallic compounds or via electron transfer reactions. Hydrocarbons (cylohexane, benzene) and ethers (diethyl ether, THF) are usually applied as the solvent in anionic polymerizations. 

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. 

Anionic polymerization of thietane and various 2-, 3- and polysubstituted thietanes has been achieved with alkali metals (Li, Na, K, Cs, Rb), naphthyl sodiumn-butyllithium, °" 1,4-dilithio-l, 1,4,4-tetraphenylbutane, and a thiolate anion.Treatment of 3-chlorothietane with aqueous sodium thiocyanate is said to give polymeric material.Polymerization of thietane has been effected with Grignard reagents.Thietane and substituted thietanes have been polymerized with dialkyl zinc reagents.A copolymer has been obtained by treating 2-methylthietane and styrene with -butyllithium a block copolymer has been derived from thietane and isoprene. " Copolymers of thietane and 3,3-dimethylthietane with pivalolactone have been reported. ... 

The data on isoprene suggest a similar interpretation [140, 141]. There is little difference in the fep values in Table 5 between diethylether and tetrahydrofuran, and the difference would be even smaller if the results were corrected to the same temperature. It would seem that with this monomer solvent-separated ion-pairs are not easily formed even in the favourable case of Li counter-ions. The cheirge delocalization is restricted to three carbon atoms in the anion giving a less diffuse ion. These results must suggest the possibility that the apparent importance of solvent-separated ion-pairs in anionic polymerization is to some extent caused by the fact that most detailed studies have been made largely on styrene and its derivatives. 

Since the required polymer is a functionalized polystyrene, the most sensible approach would be to co-polymerize styrene and some 3,4-dihydroxystyrene, perhaps protected as an acetal or a silyl derivative. A proportion of the benzene rings in the polystyrene would have the correct functionalization and the crown ether could be built on to them by passing a large excess of a suitable reagent, such as one of those we discussed in Problem 2 of this chapter or in the main text (p. 1456), deprotecting as required. A potassium salt would be used as a base in the final cyclization to take advantage of complexation by the crown ether. The various methods of polymerizing styrene (radical, anionic, etc.) are described in the chapter (pp. 1459-62). 

An optically active polystyrene derivative, 40 ([a]25365 -224° to -283°), was prepared by anionic and radical catalyses.113 The one synthesized through the anionic polymerization of the corresponding styrene derivative using BuLi in toluene seemed to have a high stereoregularity and showed an intense CD spectrum whose pattern was different from those of the monomer and a model compound of monomeric unit 41. In contrast, polymer 42 and a model compound, 43,... 

Can any kind of initiator produce the cyclopolymer from St-C3 St Since the monomer is a kind of styrene derivative, so it could be polymerized by a variety of initiators cationic, radical, anionic, and coordination catalysts, and the question could be answered by the results of the polymerization. 

Initiation of anionic polymerization of styrene, dienes and their derivatives by alkyl lithium in hydrocarbon solvents was extensively studied by Ziegler163) and thereafter by many other workers. Since the rates of initiation are often comparable to those of propagation, both processes occur simultaneously and then, while the monomer is quantitatively polymerized, an appreciable fraction of the initiator remains unutilized in the system. Hence, it is advantageous to use fast alkyl lithiums as initiators, especially when a polymer of a narrow molecular weight distribution is the desired product. 

In the anionic polymerization of styrene in liquid ammonia catalyzed by KNHj (Higginson and Wooding, 1952) considered in the previous problem, it was found that plots of 1/[styrene] vs. time were linear. What is the order of the reaction with respect to [styrene] Is this consistent with the derivation in Problem 7 ... 

Block copolymers of butadiene and styrene are therefore readily synthesized an-ionically, with either of the two monomers polymerized first. Precursor copolymers of poly(styrene-h/oc -butadiene) have been used to prepare well-defined liquid crystalline block copolymers by the same polymer analogous reaction described in Sec. 2.5 of this chapter (Scheme 21) [201-203]. Following anionic polymerization by sequential monomer addition, the polymer analogous reactions of the cholesterol (PS-PBCh) [201] and azobenzene (PS-PBAz) [203] derivatives were essentially quantitative, while that of the phenyl benzoate (PS -PBBz) block went to up to 94% conversion [202]. The polydispersities of the liquid crystalline copolymers (pdi= 1.13-1.23) were nearly as narrow as those of their precursor copolymers (pdi = 1.08 -1.21, M =8.09-9.2xl0 ) [201, 203]. 

As shown in step 3 of Mechanism 27.3 once all of the monomer is consumed the polymer is present as its organolithium derivative. This material is referred to as a living polymer because more monomer can be added and anionic polymerization will continue until the added monomer is also consumed. Adding 1,3-butadiene, for example, to a living polymer of styrene gives a new living polymer containing sections ( blocks ) of polystyrene and poly(1,3-butadiene). 

Electron-withdrawing substituents in anionic polymerizations enhance electron density at the double bonds or stabilize the carbanions by resonance. Anionic copolymerizations in many respects behave similarly to the cationic ones. For some comonomer pairs steric effects give rise to a tendency to altemate. The reactivities of the monomers in copolymerizations and the compositions of the resultant copolymers are subject to solvent polarity and to the effects of the counterions. The two, just as in cationic polymerizations, cannot be considered independently from each other. This, again, is due to the tightness of the ion pairs and to the amount of solvation. Furthermore, only monomers that possess similar polarity can be copolymerized by an anionic mechanism. Thus, for instance, styrene derivatives copolymerize with each other. Styrene, however, is unable to add to a methyl methacrylate anion, though it copolymerizes with butadiene and isoprene. In copolymerizations initiated by w-butyllithium in toluene and in tetrahydrofuran at-78 °C, the following order of reactivity with methyl methacrylate anions was observed. In toluene the order is diphenylmethyl methacrylate > benzyl methacrylate > methyl methacrylate > ethyl methacrylate > a-methylbenzyl methacrylate > isopropyl methacrylate > t-butyl methacrylate > trityl methacrylate > a,a -dimethyl-benzyl methacrylate. In tetrahydrofuran the order changes to trityl methacrylate > benzyl methacrylate > methyl methacrylate > diphenylmethyl methacrylate > ethyl methacrylate > a-methylbenzyl methacrylate > isopropyl methacrylate > a,a -dimethylbenzyl methacrylate > t-butyl methacrylate. 

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