Ethylene polar functional groups

Styrene is slightly polar compared to ethylene and a-olefins. The lack of a strongly polar functional group allows styrene to undergo highly (>95-98% ) isoselective polymerization... 

Catalysts for ethylene/carbon monoxide copolymerisation were initially obtained from Ni(II) derivatives, such as K2Ni(CN)4 and (w-Bu4N)2 Ni(CN)4, and Pd(II) derivatives, such as [(w-Bu3P)PdCl2]2, Pd(CN)2 and HPd(CN)3, often combined with alcohol or protonic acid as a cocatalyst [241]. It must be emphasised that, in contrast to titanium-, zirconium- or vanadium-based catalysts, nickel- and palladium-based catalysts tolerate polar functional groups (including hydroxyl, carboxylic and sulfonic groups)... 

Historically, high-pressure free radical copolymerization has been used to produce highly branched, ill-defined copolymers of ethylene and various polar monomers. Although these materials are in production and extensively used throughout the world, the controlled incorporation of polar functionality coupled with linear polymer structure is still desired to improve material properties. Recent focus in this area has led to the development of new transition metal catalysts for ethylene copolymerization however, due to the electro-philicity of the metal centers in these catalysts, polar functional groups often coordinate with the metal center, effectively poisoning the catalyst. There has b een some success, but comonomer incorporation is hard to control, leading to end-functionalized, branched polyethylenes [44, 46]. These results are undesirable due to low incorporation of polar monomer into the polymer as well... 

The monomers that can be polymerised using these catalysts are restricted to those without polar functional groups, e.g. ethylene, propylene, but-Tene, butadiene, and styrene. Chain transfer agents are required to prevent build-up of excessive molar masses. The commonest such transfer agent is hydrogen, Ha, which acts by donating one atom to the end of the polymer molecule, and... 

This reaction is applied to a wide range of alkenes such as acrylic esters, styrene, ethylene, 1-alkene, 1,3-dienes, allyl chloride, allyl acetate, and vinyl ethers [122]. Tolerance of the arylmercury compounds to polar functional groups in the substrate renders the reaction applicable to the synthesis of many functionalized styrene derivatives. A ferrocenyl mercury compound undergoes addition to alkene via the Heck type reaction of methyl methacrylate (Eq. 5.29) [123]. 

Polyethylene (PE) is a family of addition polymers based on ethylene. Polyethylene can be linear or branched, homopolymer, or copolymer. In the case of a copolymer, the other comonomer can be an alkene such as propene, butene, hexene, or octene or a compound having a polar functional group such as vinyl acetate (VA), acrylic acid (AA), ethyl acrylate (EA), or methyl acrylate (MA). If the molar percent of the comonomer is less than 10%, the polymer can be classified as either a copolymer or homopolymer. Figure 4.1 presents a diagram of the family of polymers based on ethylene monomer. 

Ethylene can be copolymerized with alkene compounds or monomers containing polar functional groups, such as vinyl acetate and acrylic acid. Branched ethylene/ alkene copolymers are essentially the same as LDPE, since in commercial practice a certain amount of propylene or hexene is always added to aid in the control of molecular weight. 

The introduction of polar functional groups into polypropylene is difficult. Unlike polyethylene where various polar monomers are copolymerized with ethylene, the addition of polar monomers to the polypropylene polymerization process can-... 

Figure 3.1 The reactions of ethylene and menthene with bromine. In both molecules, the carbon-carbon doublebond functional group has a similar polarity pattern, so both molecules react with Br2 in the same way. The size and complexity of the remainders of the molecules are not important.

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