Chain transfer agents, reactive

Typical heterogeneous Ziegler catalysts operate at temperatures of 70 100°C and pressures of 0.1 2 MPa (15 300 psi). The polymerization reactions are carried out in an inert liquid medium (e.g, hexane, isobutane) or in the gas phase. Molecular weights of LLDPE resins are controlled by using hydrogen as a chain-transfer agent. Reactivities of a-olefins in copolymerization with ethylene depend on two factors the size of the alkyl groups attached to their double bonds and the type of catalyst,... 

Keywords Block copolymer Capacitor Crosslinked polypropylene Energy storage Functional polyolefin Graft copolymer Hydroxylated polypropylene Metallocene Reactive chain transfer agent Reactive comonomer... 

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. 

Solution Polymerization. Solution polymerization of vinyl acetate is carried out mainly as an intermediate step to the manufacture of poly(vinyl alcohol). A small amount of solution-polymerized vinyl acetate is prepared for the merchant market. When solution polymerization is carried out, the solvent acts as a chain-transfer agent, and depending on its transfer constant, has an effect on the molecular weight of the product. The rate of polymerization is also affected by the solvent but not in the same way as the degree of polymerization. The reactivity of the solvent-derived radical plays an important part. Chain-transfer constants for solvents in vinyl acetate polymerizations have been tabulated (13). Continuous solution polymers of poly(vinyl acetate) in tubular reactors have been prepared at high yield and throughput (73,74). 

Watanabe et al,25-5 52s applied AMS dimer (116) as a radical trap to examine the reactions of oxygen-centered radicals (e.g. r-butoxy, cumyloxy, benzoyloxy). AMS dimer (116) is an addition fragmentation chain transfer agent (see 6.2.3.4) and reacts as shown in Scheme 3,96. The reaction products are macromonomers and may potentially react further. The reactivity of oxygen centered radicals towards 116 appears to be similar to that of S.2 1 Cumyl radicals are formed as a byproduct of trapping and are said to decay mainly by combination and disproportionation. 

Note 1 Reactive end-groups in telechelic polymers come from initiator or termination or chain transfer agents in chain polymerizations, but not from monomer(s) as in polycondensations and polyadditions. 

As with chain-transfer agents, one observes that the inhibition constant for any particular compound varies considerably depending on the reactivity and polarity of the propagating... 

For any specific type of initiation (i.e., radical, cationic, or anionic) the monomer reactivity ratios and therefore the copolymer composition equation are independent of many reaction parameters. Since termination and initiation rate constants are not involved, the copolymer composition is independent of differences in the rates of initiation and termination or of the absence or presence of inhibitors or chain-transfer agents. Under a wide range of conditions the copolymer composition is independent of the degree of polymerization. The only limitation on this generalization is that the copolymer be a high polymer. Further, the particular initiation system used in a radical copolymerization has no effect on copolymer composition. The same copolymer composition is obtained irrespective of whether initiation occurs by the thermal homolysis of initiators such as AIBN or peroxides, redox, photolysis, or radiolysis. Solvent effects on copolymer composition are found in some radical copolymerizations (Sec. 6-3a). Ionic copolymerizations usually show significant effects of solvent as well as counterion on copolymer composition (Sec. 6-4). 

Chain-transfer reaction to a reactive chain-transfer agent... 

This simple, reciprocal relationship may, however, be offset by the effect of the reaction temperature on the rate of decomposition of the initiator, the number of efficiently active free radicals that form, the reactivity of the free radicals, and the effect on chain-transfer agents, if any are present. 

The effect of water is to be explained. Cationic polymerization of VCZ is generally not inhibited by water. The monomer is very basic and can well compete for the carbonium ion with water. Since the polymerization is readily initiated by a proton, water acts as chain transfer agent rather than inhibitor. Although the reactivity of the carbonium ion depends certainly on the nature of the counter-ion, as will be discussed later, water seems to act as an efficient chain transfer agent, at least in the present system. The Ion-radical might consequently be converted to a proton so that the cationic propagation could even be promoted in the presence of water. 

Inhibitors. Inhibitors slow or stop polymerization by reacting with the initiator or the growing polymer chain. The free radical formed from an inhibitor must be sufficiently un-reactive that it does not function as a chain-transfer agent and begin another growing chain. Benzoquinone is a typical free-radical chain inhibitor. The resonance-stabilized free radical usually dimerizes or disproportionates to produce inert products and end the chain process. 

The concept of PO macroinitiators centers on the introduction of an initiation moiety into an olefinic polymer chain for polymerization. The most effective route for preparing PO macroinitiators is by employing functional polyolefins containing hydroxyl groups or other reactive groups. These functional POs are prepared by copolymerization of olefins with functional monomers and post-polymerization reaction, as mentioned above. In the case where an initiation moiety was at the chain-end of the polyolefins, a block type copolymer is produced. It has been reported that thiol-terminated PP was used as polymeric chain transfer agent in styrene and styrene/acrylonitrile polymerization to form polypropylene-b/odc-polystyrene (PP-b-PS) and polypropylene-btock-poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (PP-b-SAN) block copolymer [19]. On the other hand, polymer hybrids with block and graft structures can be produced if initiation moieties are in the polymer chain. 

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