Chain-grow mechanism

Research on the optimization of reaction conditions and the elucidation of reaction mechanisms for the dehydrogenative polymerization of secondary stannanes is rather limited. In this context, Tilley and coworkers proposed a chain-grow mechanism (Scheme 17), which is similar to that proposed for the dehydropolymerization of organosilanes . ... 

Since the CO insertion is believed to be involved in the C—C bond formation and in the C—C chain growing mechanism in several catalytic processes, the reactivity of the acyl complexes is of particular interest. Three main types of reactivity are considered here reaction with electrophiles, ligand displacement and reaction with Hj. 

Figure 14 5 outlines a mechanism for ethylene polymerization m the presence of Cp2ZrCl2 Step 1 describes the purpose of the MAO promoter which is to transfer a methyl group to the metallocene to convert it to its catalytically active form This methyl group will be incorporated into the growing polymer chain—indeed it will be the end from which the rest of the chain grows... 

The growth of long chains ( > 10 ) in the perfectly mixed 1 1 crystals of ethylene with chlorine and bromine at 20-70 K was studied in detail by Wight et al. [1993]. Active radicals were generated by pulse photolysis of CI2 or Br2. The rate constant was found to be /Cc = 8-12s below Tc = 45 K. The chain grows according to the well known radical mechanism including the reactions... 

R may be a radical formed by the decomposition of an initiator or a growing radical chain. Similarly, grafting by the chain-transfer mechanism occurs when the branched part consists of another monomer. Since cellulose is a poor transfer agent [8], the efficiency of grafting is quite poor. Incorporation of—SH groups into cellulose enhances the probability of chain transfer. This can be achieved as follows ... 

While a planar configuration characterizes the last monomeric unit of a polymeric chain growing by a radical or carbonium ion mechanism, a tetrahedral configuration should be attributed to the end of a growing polymeric carbanion. Hence an isotactic or a... 

Such a mechanism is open to serious objections both on theoretical and experimental grounds. Cationic polymerizations usually are conducted in media of low dielectric constant in which the indicated separation of charge, and its subsequent increase as monomer adds to the chain, would require a considerable energy. Moreover, termination of chains growing in this manner would be a second-order process involving two independent centers such as occurs in free radical polymerizations. Experimental evidence indicates a termination process of lower order (see below). Finally, it appears doubtful that a halide catalyst is effective without a co-catalyst such as water, alcohol, or acetic acid. This is quite definitely true for isobutylene, and it may hold also for other monomers as well. 

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 polymerization process for nylon 6 consists primarily of the three types of reaction illustrated in Fig. 23.6. Each of the reactions is reversible, tvith the equilibrium of the products being controlled primarily by the concentration of water in the reaction vessel. The reaction is initiated by the hydrolytic ring opening of caprolactam to form 6-aminohexanoic acid, as shown in Fig. 23.6 a). Chain extension of the type shotvn in Fig. 23.6 b) dominates when water is abundant (10 to 20%) in the reaction mixture. At lower water levels (2 to 5%) chains grow primarily by the mechanism shown in Fig. 23.6 c). In order to limit the average molecular... 

In addition to this reaction, quinones and other alkyl radical acceptors retard polymer oxidation by the reaction with alkyl radicals (see earlier). As a result, effectiveness of these inhibitors increases with the formation of hydroperoxide groups in PP. In addition, the inhibiting capacity of these antioxidants grows with hydroperoxide accumulation. The results illustrating the efficiency of the antioxidants with cyclic chain termination mechanisms in PP containing hydroperoxide groups is presented in Table 19.12. The polyatomic phenols producing quinones also possess the ability to terminate several chains. 

It was also shown [9] that when [TiCl4]/[CCl3C02H] was less than 6, the reaction curves were S-shaped, and that this phenomenon was most probably due to a slow buildup of the concentration of growing chains thereby a connection with the polymerisations co-catalysed by water was established. The detailed discussion of reaction mechanism [9] is of historical interest since it is one of the earliest expositions indicating the simultaneous occurrence of different chain breaking mechanisms. 

However, for a variety of reasons it seems extremely unlikely that the same mechanism is applicable to the polymerisation of cyclic formals and acetals. One reason is that these compounds cannot be co-polymerised with cyclic ethers another is that the polymers are predominantly cyclic, with the number of end-groups far smaller than the number of growing chains. One mechanism which has been proposed and which accounts for most of the observations involves formation of an oxonium ion (X) from the initiator and the monomer, and a subsequent propagation by a ring-expansion reaction (see 13). 

In both the mechanisms the polymer chain grows from the catalyst surface by successive insertion reactions of the complexed monomer, the R group originally present in the cocatalyst ending up as the terminal group of the chain. 

Spontaneous polymerization of 4-vinyl pyridine in the presence of polyacids was one of the earliest cases of template polymerization studied. Vinyl pyridine polymerizes without an additional initiator in the presence of both low molecular weight acids and polyacids such as poly(acrylic acid), poly(methacrylic acid), polyCvinyl phosphonic acid), or poly(styrene sulfonic acid). The polyacids, in comparison with low molecular weight acids, support much higher initial rates of polymerization and lead to different kinetic equations. The authors suggested that the reaction was initiated by zwitterions. The chain reaction mechanism includes anion addition to activated double bonds of quaternary salt molecules of 4-vinylpyridine, then propagation in the activated center, and termination of the growing center by protonization. The proposed structure of the product, obtained in the case of poly(acrylic acid), used as a template is ... 

The addition polymerization invariably proceeds by a chain-reaction mechanism involving three elementary steps, i.e. initiation, propagation and termination (Fig. 2). The preferred mode of monomer addition to the growing chain de-... 

If the reaction takes place in the presence of monomer, grafting occurs in the usual manner. The fact that some homopolymerization also occurs in the redox-catalyzed grafting system can be explained by a chain-transfer mechanism (Reaction 10). The growing polymer radicals can abstract hydrogen atoms from the monomer, forming monomer radicals and thereby initiating homopolymerization. 

Other polymerization mechanisms can produce distributions of molecular weights that are different from the most probable distribution. Much narrower distributions are obtained if a specified number of chains is initiated at the same time, and these chains grow exclusively by the addition of monomer to the reactive end. Then... 

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