Butyllithium polymers

Furthermore, microstructural variations of cis, trans, and vinyl contents have no discernible effect on the relation between g and g" of Figures 3-5. Since the same linear butyllithium polymers containing 10% vinyl isomer were used as reference in calculating g and g", it is likely that microstructural differences have been cancelled. 

Phenylmagnesium bromide (polymer 11a) appears to function in essentially the same manner as n-butyllithium. Polymer 11 b is discussed below. Sodium naphthalenide, which is stable only in an ether solvent and decomposes in toluene, gives a highly syndiotactic polymer, with a tr of approximately 0.05 (29). 

The transformation of the hydrophobic periphery composed of bromo substituents into a hydrophilic wrapping of carboxylic acid functions was achieved by reacting 31 with (i) n-butyllithium and (ii) carbon dioxide. The polymer-analogous transformation provides water soluble, amphiphilic derivatives of 31 which constitute useful covalently bonded unimolecular models for micellar structures. 

A remarkable effect of the reaction temperature on the enantioselectivity of the addition of butyllithium to benzaldehyde was found with polystyrene-bound cvs-enofo-S-dimethylamino -(benzyloxy)bornane (8)12. When the soluble monomeric ligand 9 was tested, the enantioselectivity increased with decreasing temperature (53% ee at — 78 C). In contrast, the polymer-bound chiral additive 8 showed an optimum at — 20 C (32% ee). Although the enantioselectivity of this addition reaction is low, an advantage of a polymer-bound chiral auxiliary is that it can be removed by a simple filtration. 

Dienes (butadiene and isoprene) may yield polymers with high 1,4 unit contents 4S 49), when the process is initiated with butyllithium in nonpolar solvents. Small amounts of polar additives suppress steric control6). 

Reaction Mechanism. The reaction mechanism of the anionic-solution polymerization of styrene monomer using n-butyllithium initiator has been the subject of considerable experimental and theoretical investigation (1-8). The polymerization process occurs as the alkyllithium attacks monomeric styrene to initiate active species, which, in turn, grow by a stepwise propagation reaction. This polymerization reaction is characterized by the production of straight chain active polymer molecules ("living" polymer) without termination, branching, or transfer reactions. 

The effect of media viscosity on polymerization rates and polymer properties is well known. Analysis of kinetic rate data generally is constrained to propagation rate constant invarient of media viscosity. The current research developes an experimental design that allows for the evaluation of viscosity dependence on uncoupled rate constants including initiation, propagation and macromolecular association. The system styrene, toluene n-butyllithium is utilized. 

Syntheses. Isotactic poly(methyl methacrylate) was synthesized by the method of Tsuruta et al. (9 ). Under a nitrogen atmosphere, a quantity of 6 mL (0.056 mole) of methyl methacrylate (MMA) dried over 4A molecular sieve was dissolved in 24 mL of similarly dried toluene. To the glass vial containing the reaction was added 0.65 mL of 1.6 M n-butyllithium, and the reaction was kept at -78°C in a dry ice/isopropanol bath. The polymerization was halted 24 hr later with the addition of hydrochloric acid and methanol (methanol/water 4.1 by volume). The polymer was dried in vacuo at 50°C, redissolved in methylene chloride, precipitated by being poured into water-containing methanol, and dried in vacuo at 50°C. Tacticlty and composition were verified with % NMR. Yield 47%. 

Hyperbranched polymers have also been prepared via living anionic polymerization. The reaction of poly(4-methylstyrene)-fo-polystyrene lithium with a small amount of divinylbenzene, afforded a star-block copolymer with 4-methylstyrene units in the periphery [200]. The methyl groups were subsequently metalated with s-butyllithium/tetramethylethylenediamine. The produced anions initiated the polymerization of a-methylstyrene (Scheme 109). From the radius of gyration to hydrodynamic radius ratio (0.96-1.1) it was concluded that the second generation polymers behaved like soft spheres. 

A bulky methacrylate, triphenylmethyl methacrylate (TrMA), is a unique monomer which gives an almost 100% isotactic polymer in anionic polymerization with n-butyllithium both in nonpolar and polar solvents. Moreover, even free-radical polymerization affords a highly isotactic polymer from this monomer.23 The isotactic specificity of TrMA polymerization is ascribed to the helical formation of the main chain. When TrMA is polymerized in toluene at —78°C... 

The synthesis and characterization of a series of dendrigraft polymers based on polybutadiene segments was reported by Hempenius et al. [15], The synthesis begins with a linear-poly(butadiene) (PB) core obtained by the sec-butyllithium-initiated anionic polymerization of 1,3-butadiene in n-hexane, to give a microstructure containing approximately 6% 1,2-units (Scheme 3). The pendant vinyl moities are converted into electrophilic grafting sites by hydrosilylation with... 

Polymerization in electrostatic systems like the ones mentioned above is stericaUy inhibited by alkyl substitution at the a-carbon which must assume a coordination number greater than 4. Coates and Glockhng have treated this inhibition of polymerization in terms of decreased electronegative character of the branched alkyl groups. Therefore, stimulated by the idea that f-afkylhthium compounds may exist as low polymers or even as monomeric molecules, Weiner and coworkers and Kottke and Stalke have isolated f-butyllithium as a pure substance for the first time and characterised it by spectroscopic methods and X-ray diffraction. The colourless crystalline solid was found to be tetrameric over a range of concentrations in both benzene and hexane ... 

It was already established that pure ethyl-" " and f-butyllithium exist as six- and fourfold polymers, respectively, in benzene solution. Apparently, C—Li bond cleavage takes place in this solvent leading to an exchange of alkyl groups between polymeric organo-lithium molecules when both compounds are present. The products are believed to be electron-deficient polymers of the type (EtLi) (f-BuLi) , wha-e m is a small number such as 4 or 6. ... 

Methyl sorbate and analogous monomers were polymerized in the presence of (/ )-2-methylbutyllithium or of complexes between butyllithium and optically active Lewis bases (329, 330) (see formulas 32 and 33) the polymers show weak optical activity. The prevailing configuration of the — CH(CH3)— group was determined by the sign of rotation of the methylsuccinic acid obtained from the polymer after ozonization. The low optical purity ( = 6%) found is related to the presence of a remarkable stereochemical disorder (115, 116) and to the fact that the chiral agent is active, at least in the case of methylbutyllithium, only in the initiation reaction. 

Another result of great importance—the conformational asymmetric polymerization of triphenylmethyl methacrylate realized in Osaka (223, 364, 365)— has already been discussed in Sect. IV-C. The polymerization was carried out in the presence of the complex butyllithium-sparteine or butyllithium-6-ben-zylsparteine. The use of benzylsparteine as cocatalyst leads to a completely soluble low molecular weight polymer with optical activity [a]o around 340° its structure was ascertained by conversion into (optically inactive) isotactic poly(methyl methacrylate). To the best of my knowledge this is the first example of an asymmetric synthesis in which the chirality of the product derives finom hindered rotation around carbon-carbon single bonds. 

It still represents a great challenge to conduct anionic polymerizations in an automated parallel synthesizer. Above all, the technique requires an intensive purification of the reagents and the polymerization medium in order to obtain well-defined polymers. Therefore, a special procedure has been described for the inertization of the reactors [55]. It is called chemical cleaning, which is essentially rinsing all the reactors with. yec-butyllithium (.y-BuLi) prior to the reaction in order to eliminate all chemical impurities. This process can be performed in an automated manner. Due to the extreme sensitivity of the polymerization technique to oxygen, moisture, and impurities, detailed investigations on the inertization procedure and the reproducibility of the experiments need to be conducted. 

Auguste S, Edwards HGM, Johnson AF et al. (1996) Anionic polymerization of styrene and butadiene initiated by n-butyllithium in ethylbenzene determination of the propagation rate constants using Raman spectroscopy and gel permeation chromatography. Polymer 37 3665-3673... 

Compounds containing two or more carbon-carbon double bonds also act as coupling agents and also as multifunctional initiators [Hadjichristidis et al., 2001 Quirk et al., 2000]. Such compounds can also be used to synthesize multifunctional initiators that subsequently produce star polymers. Consider l,3,5-tris(l-phenylethenyl)benzene (XL). Reaction with r-butyllithium produces a trifunctional initiator XLI, which initiates polymerization of a monomer such as styrene to form a 3-arm star polystyrene [Quirk and Tsai, 1998]. The 3-arm... 

Metallation of a polymer by treatment with strong base, for example, t-butyllithium, yields polymeric anions that initiate the grafting of monomers such as styrene, acrylonitrile, and... 

Solution polymerization of these compounds can be brought about by nucleophilic initiators including n-butyllithium, triethylamine, and sodium cyanide. In the absence of such initiators, solution polymerization proceeds very slowly. As an example, l-(p-chlorothiobenzoyl)aziridine at a concentration of 0.5 mole percent in tetrahydrofuran polymerizes at room temperature when initiated with n-butyllithium to give a 94% yield of polymer. Melting point of the polymer is 90-100° C and its reduced viscosity in N-methylpyrrolidone (1% concentration at 30° C)i is 0.15. 

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