Atactic addition polymerization

The vinyl chloride monomer polymerizes via addition polymerization to form polyvinyl chloride. The final polymer has the chemical composition shown in Fig. 22.1. The polymer exhibits limited crystallinity, though this property is not often considered as important in defining its performance. It tends to be atactic or regionally syndiotactic, surrounded by extended atactic runs. When exposed to temperatures above 100 °C, polyvinyl chloride decomposes, creating free radicals that further attack the polymer chain, as we shall discuss in more detail later. For this reason, the degradation of polyvinyl chloride is autocatalytic... 

The Dow corporation has recently developed constrained geometry addition polymerization catalysts (CGCT), typically Me2Si(C5Me4)(NBut)MCl2 (M = Ti, Zr, Hf) (141) activated with MAO. The homo-polymerization of a-olefins by CGCT afford atactic or somewhat syndiotactic (polypropylene rr 69%) polymers. The metal center of the catalyst opens the coordination sphere and enables the co-polymerization of ethylene to take place, not only with common monomers such as propylene, butene, hexene, and octene, but also with sterically hindered a-olefins such as styrene and 4-vinylcyclohexene [202]. 

Polypropylene (PP) is a semicrystalline commodity thermoplastic produced by coordination addition polymerization of propylene monomer [197]. Most frequently, stereospecific Ziegler-Natta catalysts are used in industrial processes to produce highly stereospecific crystalline isotactic (iPP) and syndiotactic (sPP) polymer with a small portion of amorphous atactic PP as a side product. Polymerization of non-symmetrical propylene monomer yields three possible sequences however, the steric effect related to the methyl side group highly favors the head-to-tail sequence. The occurence of head-to-head and tail-to-tail sequences produces defects along the PP chain [198]. Presence of such defects affects the overall degree of crystallinity of PP. 

Commercially available polypropylene, in the form of pellets, films, and fibers, exists as isotactic polypropylene, and this is produced by well-controlled stereoregular head-to-tail addition polymerization reaction with Ziegler-Natta-type catalysts. Formed in this manner, isotactic polypropylene is a crystalline polymer. Commercial samples typically contain small amount of atactic and/or syndiotactic polypropylene. Furthermore, blocks with different stereoregularities are also observed. The reference spectra (Reference Spectrum 2) in the Appendix provide the IR and Raman spectra of isotactic polypropylene. 

We have considered a variety of precedents for radical/ionic addition polymerization of unsaturated monomers to yield polymeric materials. However, ntme of the aforementioned techniques offer stereoselective control over the growing polymer chain, resulting in purely atactic polymers. In order to introduce such control, it is necessary to spatially confine the reactive site to control the direction of incoming monomer/growing polymer. The most common method used to control the tacticity of the resulting polymer is Ziegler-Natta polymerization. 

By addition polymerization, the carbon arbon double bond can be opened via a trans mode resulting in t/zreo-polymers of diisotactic, disyndiotactic or atactic structure or via a cis mode to form erythro- o y-mers of diisotactic, disyndiotactic or atactic configuration [5] [Eq. (2)]. 

Gas-phase polymerization of propylene was pioneered by BASF, who developed the Novolen process which uses stirred-bed reactors (Fig. 8) (125). Unreacted monomer is condensed and recycled to the polymerizer, providing additional removal of the heat of reaction. As in the early Hquid-phase systems, post-reactor treatment of the polymer is required to remove catalyst residues (126). The high content of atactic polymer in the final product limits its usefiilness in many markets. 

Polypropylene. There is an added dimension to the catalytic polymerization of propylene, since in addition to the requirement that the catalyst be sufficiently active to allow minute amounts of catalyst to yield large quantities of polymer, it must also give predominantly polypropylene with high tacticity that is, a highly ordered molecular stmcture with high crystallinity. The three stmctures for polypropylene are the isotactic, syndiotactic, and atactic forms (90) (see Olefin polya rs, polypropylene). 

The configuration of a center in radical polymerization is established in the transition state for addition of the next monomer unit when it is converted to a tetrahedral sp1 center. If the stereochemistry of this center is established at random (Scheme 4.1 km = k,) then a pure atactic chain is formed and the probability of finding a meso dyad, P(m), is 0.5. 

Bulk polymerization of //r/ .v-2-melhyI-1,3-pcntadiene lead only to 1,4-trans addition polymer, however it allows randomization of the trans structure, leading to an atactic polymer. The polymerization of the clathrate of rraw.v-2-mclhyl-1,3-pcntadiene yielded an isotactic 1,4-trans addition polymer. The polymer formed from the bulk had a molecular weight of 20,000 (240 monomer units), and that formed from the clathrate had a molecular weight of 1000 (12 monomer units). Similar results were obtained for other dienes, and the results are summarized in Table 4. It can be concluded that polymerization of dienes in the clathrate lead exclusively to a 1 A-lrans addition polymer, except in the case of 1,3-cyclohexadiene. For this monomer, although the polymer is formed entirely by 1,4-addition, the polymer formed is essentially atactic. In bulk polymerization, the polymerization proceeds in most cases through 1,4-addition (both trans and cis), but in the case of butadiene and 1,3-cyclohexadiene 1,2-additions were also observed. Actually, in the case of the bulk /-induced polymerization of 1,3-cyclohexadiene the 1,2-addition process was favoured over the 1,4-addition process by a ratio of 4 3. 

After the polymerization step, the reaction mixture is fed to a heated separation tank where the unreacted propylene is flashed off and recycled. The polymer slurry is then washed with alcohol to deactivate and remove the catalyst and the atactic polymer (the bad stuff.) Centrifuging the slurry removes the diluent from the isotactic PP (the good stuff.) The product is washed with acetone, dried, and stabilized with suitable additives. It is sold as a powder or can be pelletized into granules. 

Lithium and alkyllithiums in aliphatic hydrocarbon solvents are also used to initiate anionic polymerization of 1,3-butadiene and isoprene.120,183-187 As 1,3-butadiene has conjugated double bonds, homopolymerization of this compound can lead to several polymer structures. 1,4 Addition can produce cis-1,4- or tram-1,4-polybutadiene (19, 20). 1,2 Addition results in a polymer backbone with vinyl groups attached to chiral carbon atoms (21). All three spatial arrangements (isotactic, syndiotactic, atactic) discussed for polypropylene (see Section 13.2.4) are possible when polymerization to 1,2-polybutadiene takes place. Besides producing these structures, isoprene can react via 3,4 addition (22) to yield polymers with the three possible tacticites ... 

Exercise 29-16 The radical polymerization of ethenylbenzene gives atactic polymer. Explain what this means in terms of the mode of addition of monomer units to the growing-chain radical. 

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