Free radical polymerization chain propagation

Energies of Activation for Propagation (fp) and Termination (ft) in Free Radical Chain Polymerization... 

Free-Radical Chain Polymerization. In contrast to the typically slow stepwise polymerizations, chain reaction polymerizations are usually rapid with the initiated species rapidly propagating until termination. A kinetic chain reaction usually consists of at least three steps, namely, initiation, propagation, and termination. The initiator may be an anion, cation, free radical, or coordination catalyst. 

Though resembling free-radical chain polymerization in terms of initiation, propagation, transfer, and termination steps, ionic polymerizations have signif-... 

The synthesis of macromolecules by the free radical chain polymerization of low molar mass compounds, denoted as monomers, commences with the generation of free radicals, which is conveniently performed through photoreactions of initiator molecules. The subsequent processes, i.e. propagation, including chain transfer, and termination, are thermal (dark) reactions, which are not affected by light The simplified overall mechanism is described in Scheme 10.1. 

Monomers containing rings or double bonds can be polymerized by chain polymerization, which is also known as addition polymerization. (It should be contrasted with Step polymerization.) The chain reaction involves the sequential steps of initiation, propagation and termination. Initiation is the process by which active centres are formed these may be free radicals, anions or cations. The free radical chain polymerization of a vinyl monomer is illustrated below. 

Propagation involves the addition of monomer molecules one after another into the growing polymer radicals. This portion of the polymerization mechanism is exothermic, or it involves the generation of heat every time a monomer molecule is incorporated into the polymer radical. In order to fathom the extent of heat generation from free-radical chain polymerization reactions, we imagine the starting... 

Free-Radical Polymerization The free-radical chain polymerization of appropriate monomers can be initiated with the aid of Vis/UV hght. Here, light serves only as an initiating tool, and does not interfere with the propagation and termination stages of the chain process. The initiation affords the presence of an appropriate light-absorbing initiator, as shown in Scheme 3.1. 

Termination of free-radical chain polymerization may also take place by disproportionation. The description for chain termination by disproportionation is given in Eq. (9). The kinetic chain length (v) is the number of monomer molecules consumed by each primary radical and is equal to the rate of propagation divided by the rate of initiation for termination by disproportionation. The kinetic equation for the termination by disproportionation is... 

Polymerization of monomer by vinyl addition polymerization is a typical chain process. Three main reaction stages can be identified initiation, propagation and termination. During the initiation event, free radicals are created. In a photopolymerization, the initiating free radicals are formed in a photoprocess. Propagation is the process of addition of monomer to the growing free radical chain. The destruction of the free radical center occurs during termination. 

A case classically associated with radical chain polymerization for which a (pseudo)steady state is assumed for the concentration of active centers this condition is attained when the termination rate equals the initiation rate (the free-radical concentration is kept at a very low value due to the high value of the specific rate constant of the termination step). The propagation rate, is very much faster than the termination rate, so that long chains are produced from the beginning of the polymerization. For linear chains, the polydispersity of the polymer fraction varies between 1.5 and 2. 

The parameter q gives the probability that the active end of the propagating chain adds another monomer to the growing chain. For free-radical vinyl polymerizations, q attains values close to 1 (usual values are larger than 0.99). However, for some nonliving anionic or cationic polymerizations, such as the cationic polymerization of epoxy groups, values of q may be lower. 

Figure 5.9. Reactions involved in free-radical addition polymerization. Shown are (a) (i)-(iii) generation of free radicals from a variety of initiators, (b) initiation of polymer chain growth through the combination of a free radical and unsaturated monomer, (c) propagation of the polymer chain through the combination of growing radical chains, (d) chain-transfer of free radicals between the primary and neighboring chains, and (e) termination of the polymer growth through either combination (i) or disproportionation (ii) routes.

Reactions (1) and (4) are essentially the same as the addition of reactive species to the monomer, which is the same as the initiation and propagation reactions in the free radical chain growth polymerization. However, the kinetic chain length in vacuum is very short, and in a practical sense these reactions can be considered to be stepwise reactions. Cycle I consists of reactions of reactive species with a single reactive site, and cycle II is based on divalent reactive species. Reaction (3) is a cross-cycle reaction from cycle II to cycle I. The growth via cycle I requires the reactivation of the product species, whereas cycle II can proceed without reactivation as long as divalent reactive species or monomers with double bond or triple bond exist. 

Free radical polymerization offers a convenient approach toward the design and synthesis of special polymers for almost every area. In a free radical addition polymerization, the growing chain end bears an unpaired electron. A free radical is usually formed by the decomposition of a relatively unstable material called initiator. The free radical is capable of reacting to open the double bond of a vinyl monomer and add to it, with an electron remaining unpaired. The energy of activation for the propagation is 2-5 kcal/mol that indicates an extremely fast reaction (for condensation reaction this is 30 to 60 kcal/mol). Thus, in a very short time (usually a few seconds or less) many more monomers add successively... 

In the polymerization reactor, organic peroxides dissociate homolytically to generate free radicals. Polymerization of ethylene proceeds by a chain reaction. Initiation is achieved by addition of a free radical to ethylene. Propagation proceeds by repeated additions of monomer. 

The disproportionation reaction of the free radical chain can generate the monomer as a successive process. There are, however, some other issues regarding the propagation for free radical chain reactions. In addition to the "regular" propagation step, different reactions may occur in a so-called transfer step. In this step, the free radical chain reacts with another molecule and generates a different radical chain and a new polymeric molecule. There are two possible types of transfer reactions. The transfer step can be an intermolecular chain transfer or an intramolecular chain transfer. An example of an intermolecular chain transfer is... 

Propagation is the second step in the free radical chain reaction. This step leads to new radicals but also to the formation of small stable molecules. Because the stability of a long chain free radical is usually higher than that of a small free radical, if small radicals are formed in the first step, they usually react with the polymer, forming polymeric chain radicals and small molecules. This type of propagation is known as radical transfer reaction. Using the notation Pn for the polymer and Rn for the polymeric radical, the radical transfer reactions can be indicated as follows ... 

In addition polymerization, monomers react to form a polymer chain without net loss of atoms. The most common type of addition polymerization involves the free-radical chain reaction of molecules that have C = C bonds. As in the chain reactions considered in Section 18.4, the overall process consists of three steps initiation, propagation (repeated many times to build up a long chain), and termination. As an example, consider the polymerization of vinyl chloride (chloro-ethene, CH2 = CHC1) to polyvinyl chloride (Fig. 23.1). This process can be initiated by a small concentration of molecules that have bonds weak enough to be broken by the action of light or heat, giving radicals. An example of such an initiator is a peroxide, which can be represented as R—O—O—R, where R and R represent alkyl groups. The weak 0—0 bonds break... 

The most important free-radical chain reaction conducted in industry is the free-radical polymerization of ethylene to give polyethylene. Industrial processes usually use (/-Bu())2 as the initiator. The t-BuO- radical adds to ethylene to give the beginning of a polymer chain. The propagation part has only one step the addition of an alkyl radical at the end of a growing polymer to ethylene to give a new alkyl radical at the end of a longer polymer. The termination steps are the usual radical-radical combination and disproportionation reactions. 

The kinetics of emulsion polymerization is complex, involving a large number of species and at least two phases. The first quantitative approach to emulsion polymerization kinetics led to extensions by many others.The important events to consider are 1) the free-radical reactions of chain formation initiation, propagation, chain transfer, and termination and 2) the phase transfer events that control particle formation radical entry into particles from the aqueous phase, radical exit into the aqueous phase, radical entry into micelles, and the aqueous phase coil-globule transition. In free-radical emulsion polymerization, the fundamental steps are shown schematically in Fig. 1... 

Radical chain polymerization, as noted above, is a chain reaction consisting of a sequence of three steps—initiation, propagation, and termination. The initiation step is considered to involve two reactions. The first is the production of free radicals. There are many ways to accomplish this, but the most common method involves the use of a thermolabile compound, called an initiator (or catalyst), which decomposes to yield free radicals. The usual case is the homolytic dissociation of an initiator I to yield a pair of radicals R-... 

In this mechanism of polymerization, a small amount of free radicals is generated. These attack the carbon-carbon double bonds of monomer molecules, bond to one carbon, and produce the more stable free radical this is the initiation step. Since few chains are initiated, the free radical attacks yet another monomer, adds to the double bond, and forms another free radical that, in turn, continues the process this is propagation. Eventually two developing free radical chains may bond together and terminate the chain reaction. 

The quasi-steady hypothesis is used when short-lived intermediates are formed as part of a relatively slow overall reaction. The short-lived molecules are hypothesized to achieve an approximate steady state in which they are created at nearly the same rate that they are consumed. Their concentration in this quasi-steady state is necessarily small. A typical use of the quasi-steady hypothesis is in chain reactions propagated by free radicals. Free radicals are molecules or atoms having an unpaired electron. Many common organic reactions such as thermal cracking and vinyl polymerization occur by free-radical processes. There are three steps to a typical free-radical reaction initiation, propagation, and termination. 

Radical chain polymerization, as noted above, is a chain reaction which involves mainly three steps - initiation, propagation, and termination, taking place in sequence. The overall scheme of the polymerization of a vinyl or related monomer M, initiated by the decomposition of a free-radical initiator I, may be schematically represented as follows (Ghosh, 1990) ... 

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