Chain propagation anionic polymerization

Due to the high pK values of initiators and propagating chain ends, anionic polymerizations can undergo a variety of termination and chain transfer reactions. As a result, careful selection of solvent, initiator, and monomer is important for maintaining the living polymerization behavior. For example, acidic protons on monomers or the presence of alcohols will easily terminate carbanions. 

In general, the activation energies for both cationic and anionic polymerization are small. For this reason, low-temperature conditions are normally used to reduce side reactions. Low temperatures also minimize chain transfer reactions. These reactions produce low-molecular weight polymers by disproportionation of the propagating polymer ... 

Anionic polymerization is better for vinyl monomers with electron withdrawing groups that stabilize the intermediates. Typical monomers best polymerized by anionic initiators include acrylonitrile, styrene, and butadiene. As with cationic polymerization, a counter ion is present with the propagating chain. The propagation and the termination steps are similar to cationic polymerization. 

If the nucleophilicity of the anion is decreased, then an increase of its stability proceeds the excessive olefine can compete with the anion as a donor for the carbenium ion, and therefore the formation of chain molecules can be induced. The increase of stability named above is made possible by specific interactions with the solvent as well as complex formations with a suitable acceptor 112). Especially suitable acceptors are Lewis acids. These acids have a double function during cationic polymerizations in an environment which is not entirely water-free. They react with the remaining water to build a complex acid, which due to its increased acidity can form the important first monomer cation by protonation of the monomer. The Lewis acids stabilize the strong nucleophilic anion OH by forming the complex anion (MtXn(OH))- so that the chain propagation dominates rather than the chain termination. 

During this, the electrons of the partial X—Z multiple bond are used. Experiments show that the ester can be further active in the polymerization. Its reactivity, however, is reduced in comparison with ion pairs. From a mechanistical point of view, the chain propagation should proceed in the manner of a SN2 reaction, that is with the monomer as nucleophile and the ester as substrate. With the assistance of quantum chemical calculations using the CNDO/2 method, the differences between covalent species and free ions should be examined. The following contains the three types of anions used ... 

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). 

Anionic polymerization is a powerful method for the synthesis of polymers with a well defined structure [222]. By careful exclusion of oxygen, water and other impurities, Szwarc and coworkers were able to demonstrate the living nature of anionic polymerization [223,224]. This discovery has found a wide range of applications in the synthesis of model macromolecules over the last 40 years [225-227]. Anionic polymerization is known to be limited to monomers with electron-withdrawing substituents, such as nitrile, carboxyl, phenyl, vinyl etc. These substituents facilitate the attack of anionic species by decreasing the electron density at the double bond and stabilizing the propagating anionic chains by resonance. 

Chain-reaction mechanisms differ according to the nature of the reactive intermediate in the propagation steps, such as free radicals, ions, or coordination compounds. These give rise to radical-addition polymerization, ionic-addition (cationic or anionic) polymerization, etc. In Example 7-4 below, we use a simple model for radical-addition polymerization. 

Strongly electrophilic or nucleophilic monomers will polymerize exclusively by anionic or cationic mechanisms. However, monomers that are neither strongly electrophilic nor nucleophilic generally polymerize by ionic and free radical processes. The contrast between anionic, cationic, and free radical methods of addition copolymerization is clearly illustrated by the results of copolymerization utilizing the three modes of initiation (Figure 7.1). Such results illustrate the variations of reactivities and copolymer composition that are possible from employing the different initiation modes. The free radical tie-line resides near the middle since free radical polymerizations are less dependent on the electronic nature of the comonomers relative to the ionic modes of chain propagation. 

The situation is quite different in chain polymerization where an initiator is used to produce an initiator species R with a reactive center. The reactive center may be either a free radical, cation, or anion. Polymerization occurs by the propagation of the reactive center by the successive additions of large numbers of monomer molecules in a chain reaction. The distinguishing characteristic of chain polymerization is that polymer growth takes place by monomer reacting only with the reactive center. Monomer does not react with monomer and the different-sized species such as dimer, trimer, tetramer, and n-trier do not react with each other. By far the most common example of chain polymerization is that of vinyl monomers. The process can be depicted as... 

The number-average degree of polymerization for a living anionic polymerization is the ratio of the concentration of reacted monomer to the concentration of living ends (Eq. 5-58). For the usual situation where all the initiator I is converted into propagating chain ends, Eq. 5-58 becomes... 

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