1,1 -diphenylethylene, polymerization

Two pieces of direct evidence support the manifestly plausible view that these polymerizations are propagated through the action of car-bonium ion centers. Eley and Richards have shown that triphenyl-methyl chloride is a catalyst for the polymerization of vinyl ethers in m-cresol, in which the catalyst ionizes to yield the triphenylcarbonium ion (C6H5)3C+. Secondly, A. G. Evans and Hamann showed that l,l -diphenylethylene develops an absorption band at 4340 A in the presence of boron trifluoride (and adventitious moisture) or of stannic chloride and hydrogen chloride. This band is characteristic of both the triphenylcarbonium ion and the diphenylmethylcarbonium ion. While similar observations on polymerizable monomers are precluded by intervention of polymerization before a sufficient concentration may be reached, similar ions should certainly be expected to form under the same conditions in styrene, and in certain other monomers also. In analogy with free radical polymerizations, the essential chain-propagating step may therefore be assumed to consist in the addition of monomer to a carbonium ion... 

Diphenylethylene is unable to polymerize, presumably owing to the excessive steric requirements of its two large substituents. See Chap. VI. 

The interactions between bulky phenyl substituents in the polymer chain can give more steric hindrance than the deformation of the valency angles in the four membered ring. Similar interactions prevent the polymerization of 1,1-diphenylethylene and 2,2-diphenyloxirane (16). Thus, octaphenylcyclotetrasilane can be thermodynamically more stable than linear perphenylpolysilane and no initiator exists capable of converting this cycle to the linear polymer. 

The structure-reactivity behavior found for similar organosodium polymerization initiators of styrene [27] or that for addition reactions with 1,1-diphenylethylene [28] is almost identical with that found for the lithium initiators of Table 3.1. It is interesting to note from Table 3.1 that the reactivity of lithium... 

The polymerization is carried out at 78°C in THF. In order to modify the reactivity of the terminal carbanion, a small excess, with respect to the initial concentration of initiator, either of a methylstyrene or diphenylethylene, is added to the living polymer. 

This group covers polymeric peroxides of indeterminate structure rather than polyfunctional macromolecules of known structure. These usually arise from autoxidation of susceptible monomers and are of very limited stability or explosive. Polymeric peroxide species described as hazardous include those derived from butadiene (highly explosive) isoprene, dimethylbutadiene (both strongly explosive) 1,5-p-menthadiene, 1,3-cyclohexadiene (both explode at 110°C) methyl methacrylate, vinyl acetate, styrene (all explode above 40°C) diethyl ether (extremely explosive even below 100°C ) and 1,1-diphenylethylene, cyclo-pentadiene (both explode on heating). 

The dimer cation was supposed to have a sandwich structure in which the orbitals of one molecule overlapped with those of the other molecule. The band at 450 nm (B) is due to the bonded dimer cation (St—St T) the formation of this species corresponds to the initiation step of the polymerization. The bonded dimer cation may be formed by the opening of the vinyl double-bonds. Egusa et al. proposed that the structure was a linked head-to-head type I or II, by the analogy of the dimeric dianions of styrene and a-methylstyrene. Table 1 summarizes the assignment of absorption bands observed in pulse radiolysis of 1,1-diphenylethylene in dichloromethane, which is a compound suitable for studying monomeric and dimeric cations [28],... 

Busson and van Beylen [205] studied the role of the cation and of the carbanionic part of the active centre during anionic polymerization in non polar media. They were interested in the problem of complex formation between the cation and the monomer double bond [206] and they therefore measured the reaction of various 1,1-diphenylethylenes with Li+, K+ and Cs+ salts of living polystyrene in benzene and cyclohexane at 297 K. Diphenylethy-lene derivatives were selected for two reasons. 

The experimental verification of this relation indicates a rapid establishment of the deaggregation equilibrium, which is shifted far to the left (the concentration of free BuLi must be very small). The degradation intermediates are also inactive. Table 6 shows that similar dependences have also been observed with the polymerization of isoprene and the dimerization of 1,1-diphenylethylene in fluorene [150]. 

A method for preparing polymers in a narrow molecular weight distribution by controlled radical polymerization in an aqueous solution using (3-cyclodextrin as the macroinitiator intermediate and 1,1 -diphenylethylene as the regulator is described. Since this method requires considerably lower amounts of both initiator and regulator, polymers contain limited amounts of regulator and initiator decomposition products. 

The controlled emulsion polymerization of styrene using nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP), reversible addition-fragmentation transfer polymerization (RAFT), stable free radical polymerization (SFR), and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) methods is described. The chain transfer agent associated with each process was phenyl-t-butylnitrone, nitric oxide, dibenzyl trithiocarbonate, 1,1-diphenylethylene, and ethyl 2-bromo-isobutyrate, respectively. Polydispersities between 1.17 and 1.80 were observed. 

Controlled Polymerization of Styrene Using 1,1-Diphenylethylene as Controlling Agent [Stable Free Radical Polymerization SFR]... 

Alternatively, Lewis acids such as SbCl5 may initiate oligomerization directly by electron transfer from extremely reactive alkenes such as 1,1-diphenylethylene and 1,1 -di(p-methoxyphenyl)ethylene [28,143,144]. The dimeric tail-to-tail carbenium ion of 1,1-diphenylethylene shown in Eq. (32) was observed, and its formation explained by a radical cation intermediate. Because 1,1-diarylethylenes can not polymerize, only oligomerization was observed. 

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