Chain-terminating process

The most important mechanism for the decay of propagating species in radical polymerization is radical-radical reaction by combination or disproportionation as shown in Scheme 5.1. This process is sometimes simply referred to as bimolecular termination. However, this term is misleading since most chain termination processes are bimolecular reactions. 

Chemical analyses reveal that measurable amounts of uranyl ion are actually present in Pu(IV) polymers grown in mixtures of Pu(IV) and uranyl nitrate suggesting that uranyl ion is being taken up in the polymer network and consequently hampers the growth through a chain termination process as suggested in Fig. 3. The uranyl serves to terminate active sites because it does not typically form extensive polymeric aggregates as does Pu(IV) instead it tends only to dimerize and, at most, tri-merize (4). 

It should be evident from this discussion that the first explosion limit will be quite sensitive to the nature of the surface of the reaction vessel and its area. If the surface is coated with a material that inhibits the surface chain termination process, the first explosion limit will be lowered. Inert foreign gases can also have the effect of lowering the first explosion limit, since they can hinder diffusion to the surface. If something like spun glass or large amounts of fine wire are inserted, one can effect an increase in the first explosion limit by changing the surface/ volume ratio of the system. 

The observed methane generation points to a plausible I —> III or II - III transformation, but it does not distinguish which of the structures (II or III) is the metathesis-active carbene. This matter is mechanistically significant with regard to the chain termination process. Type III may terminate by a bimolecular dimerization sequence as in Eq. (11), or it may convert to a 7r-olefin complex via an uncommon 1,2-hydride shift ... 

Table 16.1 presents the inhibition coefficients / and the termination rate constants kn in systems with the cyclic chain termination mechanism with aromatic amines. Naturally, these are apparent rate constants, which characterize primarily the rate-limiting step of the chain termination process. 

This will lead to a different kinetic law. In presence of 02, the following chain termination processes take place ... 

Brookhart and coworkers [1] have recently developed Ni(II) and Pd(II) bis-imine based catalysts of the type (ArN=C(R)-C(R)=NAr)M-CH3+ (la of Figure 1) that are promising alternatives to both Ziegler-Natta systems and metallocene catalysts for olefin polymerization. Traditionally, such late metal catalysts are found to produce dimers or extremely low molecular weight oligomers due to the favorability of the P-elimination chain termination process [2],... 

At lower temperatures (or in solution) and at high monomer concentration, a second chain termination process that could occur is direct j -hydrogen transfer to a second molecule of monomer. This kind of chain transfer step is now generally accepted for many transition-metal-catalyzed polymerizations, where direct /1-elimination would be too much uphill to explain the observed molecular weights, for olefin oligomerization at aluminium, a similar situation applies. Since insertion and j -hydrogen transfer have an identical concentration dependence, their ratio does not depend much on the reaction conditions (except temperature) and hence limits the molecular weight attainable in the Aufbau reaction. 

Tetralin hydroperoxide (1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-l-naphthyl hydroperoxide) and 9,10-dihydroanthracyl-9-hydroperoxide were prepared by oxidizing the two hydrocarbons and purified by recrystallization. Commercial cumene hydroperoxide was purified by successive conversions to its sodium salt until it no longer increased the rate of oxidation of cumene at 56°C. All three hydroperoxides were 100% pure by iodometric titration. They all initiated oxidations both thermally (possibly by the bi-molecular reaction, R OOH + RH — R O + H20 + R (33)) and photochemically. The experimental conditions were chosen so that the rate of the thermally initiated reaction was less than 10% of the rate of the photoreaction. The rates of chain initiation were measured with the inhibitors 2,6-di-ter -butyl-4-methylphenol and 2,6-di-fer -butyl-4-meth-oxyphenol. None of the hydroperoxides introduced any kinetically first-order chain termination process into the over-all reaction. 

The chain termination processes will be described in detail in the following sections, dealing with the kinetic study of polymerization process. 

Chain termination occurs by combination or disproportionation of different polymer radicals. The termination rate, v is proportional to the polymer radical concentration, [ PJ, squared, with kt being the termination rate constant. Other possible chain termination processes are chain transfer and reaction of polymer radicals wifh inhibitors and radical trapping. ... 

Pn] squared, with kt being the termination rate constant. Other possible chain termination processes are chain transfer and reaction of polymer radicals with inhibitors and radical trapping. 

Monophotonic photochemical reactions are those where each absorbed quantum excites one molecule which then reacts. Rates are usually directly proportional to the light intensity. Where secondary reactions are set up, however, the proportionality changes, depending on the chain termination processes. If chain intermediates are terminated by unimolecular reactions,... 

Even when the reductive processes, so evident in metal-stimulated processes, are avoided, several side reactions can still cause reductions in the yield of the desired a-arylated ketones. The first, abstraction of 3-hydrogen atoms from the enolate ion by the aryl radical, has already been mentioned (Section 2.2.2.1) and is sometimes a serious, chain-terminating process.43 5 This abstraction reaction, however, appears to be quite unpredictable. 3-Hydrogen abstraction from the enolate of 2,4-dimethyl-3-pentanone (PriCOPr Table 1) which severely disrupts the reaction with iodobenzene, does not prevent high-yielding reactions of the same enolate (and those from other ketones with a-branching) with many other substrates. In in-... 

In this review the reactions terminating a growing chain are denoted as chain-terminating processes. We refer to the chain-terminating process with a reinitiation reaction as chain transfer, and to the process with an irreversible deactivation of propagating centers as chain termination. 

The coordination polymerization of ethylene and a-olefins with Ziegler-Natta catalysts involves, in general, many elementary reactions, such as initiation (formation of active centers), chain propagation, chain transfers and chain terminations. The length of growing polyolefin chains is limited by the chain-terminating processes, as schematically represented (for ethylene) by 21,49 51)... 

In the polymerization involving chain-terminating processes, the number-average degree of polymerization at time t can be given by... 

Molecular hydrogen has been known for a long time as an effective chain-transfer agent in the coordination polymerization of ethylene and a-oiefms with Ziegler-Natta catalysts 99-101,50). The mechanism for the reaction of a growing polymer chain with H2 has not been established, The living coordination polymerization system is well suited for an elucidation of the mechanism, since the reaction with H2 can be studied independently of any interference from other chain-terminating processes. 

Watson et al.124-1261 studied the polymerization of ethylene and propylene with Lu(n5-C5Me5)2(CH3) ether in toluene or cyclohexane at 30-80 °C. The Lu complex produced polymers of Mn = 10M04 for ethylene, and oligomers for propylene. In the oligomerization of propylene an unusual chain transfer reaction due to 0-alkyl elimination was found together with P-hydrogen elimination from Lu-alkyls as chain-terminating processes 125). 

The mechanism whereby the chain-terminating step for oligosaccharide formation is regulated is not well understood. It has been proposed that certain structural features, such as the presence of sialyl or fucosyl residues, and an uncommon anomeric configuration,138,139 act as signals to halt the synthesis of the oligosaccharide chain. Additional studies are needed in order to clarify the role of these structural features in the chain-terminating process. 

Polymers with even narrower mass distributions, e.g. with PDI values close to 1, arise in living polymerization systems, in which no chain termination processes can occur at all, such that all chains remain bound to the metal centre from which they have started to grow at the same time. Living polymerizations, which offer useful opportunities, e.g. with regard to the production of block copolymers by exchange of one monomer for another, occur in anionic polymerizations of styrenes or butadienes such as are induced by simple lithium alkyls. For a-olefin polymerization catalysts of the type discussed above, living polymerizations are rare. These more elaborate catalysts can thus release a newly formed polymer chain within a time interval of typically less than one... 

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