Tactic configurations

It is possible to record HR NMR spectra of polymer solutions with the aid of the wide range of solvents available for NMR, sometimes at elevated temperatures. The viscosity of the solution does not always affect the line width. Thus HR NMR can successfully be applied to elucidate the chemical structure, configuration (tacticity ) and conformation of polymers and copolymers. 

Figure 1.3 Chain configurations (tacticity). — Bonds that are on the paper plane behind the paper plane Bonds that are in front of the paper plane.

The chemical structures of PLA, including the chain structure, configuration, tacticity, conformation, and the frustrated structure, are important parameters that govern... 

Amer and van Reenen [39] fractionated isotactic polypropylenes by TREE to get fractions with different molar masses but similar tacticities. The DSC results of the fractions indicated that the crystallization behaviour is strongly affected by the configuration (tacticity) and the molar mass of the PP. Soares et al. [40] proposed a new approach for identifying the number of active catalyst sites and the polymer chain microstructural parameters produced at each active site for ethylene/l-olefin copolymers synthesized with multiple-site catalysts. This method is based on the simultaneous deconvolution of bivariate MMD/CCD, which can be obtained by cross-fractionation techniques like SEC/TREE or TREE/SEC. The proposed approach was validated successfully with model ethylene/1-butene and ethylene/ 1-octene copolymers. Alamo and co-workers [41] studied the effects of molar mass and branching distribution on mechanical properties of ethylene/1-hexene copolymer film grade resins produced by a metallocene catalyst Molar mass fractions were obtained by solvent/non-solvent techniques while P-TREE was used for fractionation according to the 1-hexene content. 

Figure 4.11 expanded 400-MHz spectra are shown for four copolymers and polymethyl acrylate (PM). Expansions of the methoxy region are shown since in particular this region displays additional fine splittings due to combined configurational (= tacticity) and compositional sequence effects. The average copolymer composition (mole fraction styrene, F ) can be readily obtained by using ... 

Generally polymers involve bonding of the most substituted carbon of one monomeric unit to the least substituted carbon atom of the adjacent unit in a head-to-tail arrangement. Substituents appear on alternate carbon atoms. Tacticity refers to the configuration of substituents relative to the backbone axis. In an isotactic arrangement, substituents are on the same plane of the backbone axis that is, the configuration at each chiral center is identical. 

All polymer molecules have unique features of one sort or another at the level of individual repeat units. Occasional head-to-head or tail-to-tail orientations, random branching, and the distinctiveness of chain ends are all examples of such details. In this chapter we shall focus attention on two other situations which introduce variation in structure into polymers at the level of the repeat unit the presence of two different monomers or the regulation of configuration of successive repeat units. In the former case copolymers are produced, and in the latter polymers with differences in tacticity. Although the products are quite different materials, their microstructure can be discussed in very similar terms. Hence it is convenient to discuss the two topics in the same chapter. 

Tacticity of products. Most solid catalysts produce isotactic products. This is probably because of the highly orienting effect of the solid surface, as noted in item (1). The preferred isotactic configuration produced at these surfaces is largely governed by steric and electrostatic interactions between the monomer and the ligands of the transition metal. Syndiotacticity is mostly produced by soluble catalysts. Syndiotactic polymerizations are carried out at low temperatures, and even the catalyst must be prepared at low temperatures otherwise specificity is lost. With polar monomers syndiotacticity is also promoted by polar reaction media. Apparently the polar solvent molecules compete with monomer for coordination sites, and thus indicate more loosely coordinated reactive species. 

The application of NMR spectroscopy to tacticity determination of synthetic polymers was pioneered by Bovey and Tiers.9 NMR spectroscopy is the most used method and often the only technique available for directly assessing tacticity of polymer chains. "2 7 8 0JI The chemical shift of a given nucleus in or attached to the chain may be sensitive to the configuration of centers three or more monomer units removed. Other forms of spectroscopy (e.g. TR spectroscopy l2 lJ) are useful with some polymers and various physical properties (e.g. the Kerr effect14) may also be correlated with tacticity. 

There is also clear evidence that penultimate group effects are important in determining the stereochemistry of addition in many homopolymerizations and copolymerizations. This is made evident from the fact that most homopolymers have tacticity (i.e. P(/ i)f0.5, Section 4.2). Indeed, for some homopolyinerizations there is evidence that the configuration of the pcnpcnultimatc unit may also influence the stereochemistry of addition/9 If penpen- and penultimate units... 

PIB exists either as a low mw (about 12,000) viscous or atactic liq or as a cryst matl of about 1.00,000 mw. In this latter form the iso tactic (chain) type configuration predominates over the atactic and amorph forms (Ref 8). Since the isotactic form is the form designated by mil spec (Ref 2), its parameters are presented below ... 

Polymer stereochemistry, sometimes referred to as tacticity, is not the only source of variation in polymer configuration. For the monosubstituted butadiene isoprene, the structures shown in Figure 3.2 are possible. 

An excellent way to treat such data is to use reaction probability models.(1,2) In the NMR analysis of tacticity, it is frequently possible to distinguish whether the configuration is chain-end controlled or catalytic-site controlled during polymerization. Various statistical models have been proposed. The chain-end controlled models include Bemoullian (B), and first- and second-order Markovian (Ml and M2) statistics.(1) The simplest catalytic-site controlled model is the enantiomorphic site (E) model.(3) The relationship between the chain-end and catalytic-site controlled models and possible hybrid models have been delineated in a recent article.(4)... 

The results for arylsilanes are not fully understood, but the spectra may reflect partial tacticity in these polymers. Further work is needed studies of model compounds with known relative configuration would be particularly helpful. Silicon-29 NMR of polysilane copolymers also shows great promise, especially for distinguishing block-like from fully random copolymers. 

Nuclear magnetic resonance has proved to be a valuable tool in determination of configurational sequences in poly(MMA) (14). In Figure 3 is shown the NMR of poly(MMA) synthesized with an anionic polymerization catalyst known to produce predominantly isotactic sequences. In these polymers, the NMR spectrum of the methylene units In the polymer backbone gives an unequivocal determination of tacticity. The methylene signal, occurring about 1.8... 

The term tactidty refers to the configuration of polymer chains when their constituent monomer residues contain a steric center. Figure 1.8 illustrates the three principal classes of tacticity as exemplified by polypropylene. In isotactic polypropylene, the methyl groups are all positioned on the same side of the chain, as shown in Fig. 1.8 a). In syndiotactic polypropylene, the methyl groups alternate from one side to the other, as shown in Fig. 1.8 b). Random placement of the methyl groups results in atactic polypropylene, which is shown in Fig. 1.8 c). We can readily observe the effects of tacticity on the properties of polypropylene isotactic polypropylene is hard and stiff at room temperature, syndiotactic polypropylene is soft and flexible, and atactic polypropylene is soft and rubbery. 

The configurational average in eqn (10) can also be performed (8) with eqn (1). In table III we present the results of our calculations (8) of eqn (10) for poly(p-nitrostyrene) versus the tacticity of the polymer. No experimental EFSHG results have been reported for... 

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