Chain-limiting reactions

Similarly, triphenylphosphine dichloride (TPPCI2) can activate aromatic carboxylic acids in pyridine through the formation of acyloxyphosphonium salts (Scheme 2.30).313 A side reaction between tire intermediate acyloxyphosphonium species and a second carboxyl endgroup leading to the formation of anhydrides has been reported.313 This chain-limiting reaction decreases tire molar mass, while the presence of anhydride linkages in tire chains adversely affects the thermal and hydrolytic stability of the final polyester. 

The model reaction between bromo benzene and phenylacetylene gives information about the chain limiting reactions and defect structures in the polymer (76). The dehalogenation can be neglected in contrast to die Heck reaction. Diin and enin formation as well as trimerization are demonstrated in the model reaction. The trimerization and the formation of enin can be suppressed quantitatively. The formation of diin occurs in die range < 0,5 %. It is not clear if the diin is formed during the reaction or on working up. 

An example of a commercial semibatch polymerization process is the early Union Carbide process for Dynel, one of the first flame-retardant modacryhc fibers (23,24). Dynel, a staple fiber that was wet spun from acetone, was introduced in 1951. The polymer is made up of 40% acrylonitrile and 60% vinyl chloride. The reactivity ratios for this monomer pair are 3.7 and 0.074 for acrylonitrile and vinyl chloride in solution at 60°C. Thus acrylonitrile is much more reactive than vinyl chloride in this copolymerization. In addition, vinyl chloride is a strong chain-transfer agent. To make the Dynel composition of 60% vinyl chloride, the monomer composition must be maintained at 82% vinyl chloride. Since acrylonitrile is consumed much more rapidly than vinyl chloride, if no control is exercised over the monomer composition, the acrylonitrile content of the monomer decreases to approximately 1% after only 25% conversion. The low acrylonitrile content of the monomer required for this process introduces yet another problem. That is, with an acrylonitrile weight fraction of only 0.18 in the unreacted monomer mixture, the low concentration of acrylonitrile becomes a rate-limiting reaction step. Therefore, the overall rate of chain growth is low and under normal conditions, with chain transfer and radical recombination, the molecular weight of the polymer is very low. 

The newly formed short-chain radical A then quickly reacts with a monomer molecule to create a primary radical. If subsequent initiation is not fast, AX is considered an inhibitor. Many have studied the influence of chain-transfer reactions on emulsion polymerisation because of the interesting complexities arising from enhanced radical desorption rates from the growing polymer particles (64,65). Chain-transfer reactions are not limited to chain-transfer agents. Chain-transfer to monomer is ia many cases the main chain termination event ia emulsion polymerisation. Chain transfer to polymer leads to branching which can greatiy impact final product properties (66). 

Since 1 is a monomer with low activity, copolymers 2 obtained at any stage of the copolymerization process, irrespective of the monomer ratio in the initial mixture, always contain a smaller amount of monomeric units of 1 than that in the corresponding monomer mixture. 1 being prone to enter the chain-transfer reaction, the increase of its content in the initial monomer mixture reduces substantially the reaction rate and decreases the molecular mass of the copolymers. It was found that copolymers 2 which contain 2—8% of monomeric units of 1 and are suitable for obtaining fibres must have a molecular mass between 45 000 and 50000. Such copolymers can be obtained with a AN 1 ratio in the initial mixture between 95 5 and 85 15. Concentrated solutions of copolymers, especially those with a molecular mass smaller than the above limit, are characterized by a very low stability which is a substantial shortcoming of these copolymers. 

Free radical polymerization Relatively insensitive to trace impurities Reactions can occur in aqueous media Can use chain transfer to solvent to modify polymerization process Structural irregularities are introduced during initiation and termination steps Chain transfer reactions lead to reduced molecular weight and branching Limited control of tacticity High pressures often required... 

Anionic polymerization Narrow molecular weight distribution Limited chain transfer reactions Predictable molecular weight average Possibility of forming living polymers End groups can be tailored for further reactivity Solvent-sensitive due to the possibility of chain transfer to the solvent Can be slow Sensitive to trace impurities Narrow molecular weight distribution... 

Mechanism IV Inhibited Chain Oxidation when In Propagates the Chain by Reaction with RH If the radicals In formed from an antioxidant are active toward RH, the chain termination is limited by reactions (8) and (9) rather than by reaction (7). Inhibited oxidation also involves the following reaction [18,23,31,32,38] ... 

Of these reactions, the reaction of the peroxyl radical with phosphite is the slowest. The rate constant of this reaction ranges from 102 to 103 L mol 1 s 1 which is two to three orders of magnitude lower than the rate constant of similar reactions with phenols and aromatic amines. Namely, this reaction limits chain propagation in the oxidation of phosphites. Therefore, the chain oxidation of trialkyl phosphites involves chain propagation reactions with the participation of both peroxyl and phosphoranylperoxyl radicals ... 

The second explosion limit must be explained by gas-phase production and destruction of radicals. This limit is found to be independent of vessel diameter. For it to exist, the most effective chain branching reaction (3.17) must be overridden by another reaction step. When a system at a fixed temperature moves from a lower to higher pressure, the system goes from an explosive to a steady reaction condition, so the reaction step that overrides the chain branching step must be more pressure-sensitive. This reasoning leads one to propose a third-order reaction in which the species involved are in large concentration [2], The accepted reaction that satisfies these prerequisites is... 

They conclude that, at the low-temperature end of the effective temperature window, the NO reduction effectiveness is limited principally by the rates of the chain-termination reactions that compete with the preceding branching sequence. In addition, below about 1100K, hydrogen abstraction by OH is so... 

Living polymerizations are useful for producing block copolymers and functionalized polymers. Facile chain-breaking reactions such as [3-hydride transfer greatly limit the possibility of living polymerization for most of the polymerizations described in this chapter, but there are significant differences between the different types of initiators ... 

Chain Termination in the Oxidation of Cumene. Traylor and Russell (35) assume that the acceleration in the rate of oxidation of CH which is produced by added COOH is solely caused by a chain transfer reaction between CO radicals and COOH. This assumption implies that all CH3OO radicals enter into termination via Reaction 13. However, Thomas (32) has found that acetophenone is formed even in the presence of sufficient COOH to raise the oxidation rate of CH to its limiting value. (The receipt of Thomas manuscript prior to publication stimulated the present calculations.) From this fact, and from a study of the acetophenone formed during the AIBN-induced decomposition of COOH, Thomas concludes that the accelerating effect of added COOH is primarily caused... 

A linear chain of reactions, A] A2. .. A , with reaction rate constants fc, (for Aj Aj+i), gives the first example of limitation Let the reaction rate constant kq be the smallest one. Then we expect the following behavior of the reaction chain in timescale the components Ai,..., A -i transform fast into A, and... 

Chain propagation in an oxidized aldehyde is limited by the reaction of the acylperoxyl radical with the aldehyde. The dissociation energy of the —H bond of the formed peracid is sufficiently higher than that of the alkyl hydroperoxide. For example, in hydroperoxide PhMeCHOOH, Z)0 H = 365.5 kJ mol-1 and in benzoic peracid PhC(0)00H, Z>o H = 403.9 kJ mol-1 [1]. Therefore, acylperoxyl radicals are more active in chain propagation reactions compared to alkylperoxyl radicals. 

Very recently, attempts have been made to develop PP/EOC TP Vs. In order to make TPVs based on PP/EOC blend systems, phenolic resin is ineffective because the latter needs the presence of a double bond to form a crosslinked network structure. Peroxides can crosslink both saturated and unsaturated polymers without any reversion characteristics. The formation of strong C-C bonds provides substantial heat resistance and good compression set properties without any discoloration. However, the activity of peroxide depends on the type of polymer and the presence of other ingredients in the system. It has been well established that PP exhibits a (3-chain scission reaction (degradation) with the addition of peroxide. Hence, the use of peroxide only is limited to the preparation of PP-based TPVs. Lai et al. [45] and Li et al. [46] studied the fracture and failure mechanism of a PP-metallocene based EOC based TPV prepared by a peroxide crosslinking system. Rajesh et al. 

Some of the drawbacks of the metallocene catalysts are their limited temperature stability and the production of lower-molecular-weight materials under commercial application conditions. It follows that they have a limited possibility for comonomer incorporation due to termination and chain-transfer reactions prohibiting the synthesis of block copolymers by sequential addition of monomers. This led to the development of half-sandwich or constrained geometry complexes, such as ansa-monocyclopentadienylamido Group IV complexes (67) 575,576... 

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