Free radical polymerization coupling

Although this mechanism is an oversimplification, it does give the basic idea. Chain termination is more complicated than in free radical polymerization. Coupling and disproportionation are not possible since two negative ions cannot easily come together. Termination may result from a proton transfer from a solvent or weak acid, such as water, sometimes present in just trace amounts. 

Several macrointermediates to obtain this kind of copolymer were used via free radical, ionic, and/or free radical-ionic coupling polymerization. In this manner, macroinitiators, macromonomers, and macromono-meric initiators will be discussed in this chapter. 

For classical free radical polymerizations the rate of propagation is proportional to the concentration of monomer and the square root of the initiator concentration. Termination usually occurs through a coupling of two live radical chains but can occur through disproportionation. The rate of termination for coupling is directly proportional to initiator concentration. The DP is directly proportional to monomer concentration and inversely proportional to the square root of the initiator concentration. 

Hawker et al. 2001 Hawker and Wooley 2005). Recent developments in living radical polymerization allow the preparation of structurally well-defined block copolymers with low polydispersity. These polymerization methods include atom transfer free radical polymerization (Coessens et al. 2001), nitroxide-mediated polymerization (Hawker et al. 2001), and reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (Chiefari et al. 1998). In addition to their ease of use, these approaches are generally more tolerant of various functionalities than anionic polymerization. However, direct polymerization of functional monomers is still problematic because of changes in the polymerization parameters upon monomer modification. As an alternative, functionalities can be incorporated into well-defined polymer backbones after polymerization by coupling a side chain modifier with tethered reactive sites (Shenhar et al. 2004 Carroll et al. 2005 Malkoch et al. 2005). The modification step requires a clean (i.e., free from side products) and quantitative reaction so that each site has the desired chemical structures. Otherwise it affords poor reproducibility of performance between different batches. 

Because the size of the emulsion droplets dictates the diameter of the resulting capsules, it is possible to use miniemulsions to make nanocapsules. To cite a recent example, Carlos Co and his group developed relatively monodisperse 200-nm capsules by interfacial free-radical polymerization (Scott et al. 2005). Dibutyl maleate in hexadecane was dispersed in a miniemulsion of poly(ethylene glycol)-1000 (PEG-1000) divinyl ether in an aqueous phase. They generated the miniemulsion by sonication and used an interfacially active initiator, 2,2 -azobis(A-octyl-2-methyl-propionamidine) dihydrochloride, to initiate the reaction, coupled with UV irradiation. 

The main problem is how to generate free radicals at low temperatures. It was discovered this can be done by using the trialkylborane-oxygen redox couple. Prior to the studies on thiocarbonyl compounds, Furukawa and Tsuruta (68) had used a mixture of trialkylboranes and oxygen for vinyl polymerizations, and studies by Fordham and Sturm (69) and Zutty and Welch (70) had confirmed them as free-radical polymerizations. For the fluorothiocarbonyl work (39), it was shown that at - 78° C the reaction of a trialkylborane and oxygen proceeds cleanly to an alkylperoxydialkylborane, V. 

Physical entrapment or chemical coupling is a well-established procedure for MIP preparation. First, a complex is formed between a functional monomer and template in an appropriate solvent solution. Then the complex is immobilized by polymerization in excess of a cross-linker. Predominantly, free-radical polymerization thermally launched with a 2,2-azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) initiator, is performed. In the case of photo-radical polymerization, a benzophenone or acetopho-none derivative is also used as the initiator [101]. Next, the template is extracted by rinsing the resulting MIP block with a suitably selected solvent solution. The bulk... 

The above example gives us an idea of the difficulties in stating a rigorous kinetic model for the free-radical polymerization of formulations containing polyfunctional monomers. An example of efforts to introduce a mechanistic analysis for this kind of reaction, is the case of (meth)acrylate polymerizations, where Bowman and Peppas (1991) coupled free-volume derived expressions for diffusion-controlled kp and kt values to expressions describing the time-dependent evolution of the free volume. Further work expanded this initial analysis to take into account different possible elemental steps of the kinetic scheme (Anseth and Bowman, 1992/93 Kurdikar and Peppas, 1994 Scott and Peppas, 1999). The analysis of these mechanistic models is beyond our scope. Instead, one example of models that capture the main concepts of a rigorous description, but include phenomenological equations to account for the variation of specific rate constants with conversion, will be discussed. 

Homopolymer PS and block copolymer poly(tert-butyl acrylate)-b-styrene, prepared by nitroxide-mediated living free-radical polymerization, were utilized for the functionalization of shortened SWCNTs through a radical coupling reaction (Scheme 1.33) [194]. 

The radical polymerization in aqueous solution of a series of monomers—e.g., vinyl esters, acrylic and methacrylic acids, amides, nitriles, and esters, dicarboxylic acids, and butadiene—have been studied in a flow system using ESR spectrometry. Monomer and polymer radicals have been identified from their ESR spectra. fi-Coupling constants of vinyl ester radicals are low (12-13 gauss) and independent of temperature, tentatively indicating that the /3-CH2 group is locked with respect to the a-carbon group. In copolymerization studies, the low reactivity of vinyl acetate has been confirmed, and increasing reactivity for maleic acid, acrylic acid, acrylonitrile, and fumaric acid in this order has been established by quantitative evaluation of the ESR spectra. This method offers a new approach to studies of free radical polymerization. 

In processes based on reversible termination, like NMCRP and ATRP (Sect. 4.4.2), a species is added which minimizes bimolecular termination by reversible coupling. In NMCRP this species is a nitroxide. The mechanism of nitroxide-mediated CRP is based on the reversible activation of dormant polymer chains (Pn-T) as shown in Scheme 1. This additional reaction step in the free-radical polymerization provides the living character and controls the molecular weight distribution. 

Another example of the macroinitiator approach to making block copolymers is shown in Scheme 8.4. Since methyl methacrylate (MMA) polymerization cannot effectively be initiated by TEMPO-based alkoxyamine initiators, a poly(methyl methacrylate) macroinitiator (XIII) was prepared using conventional free radical polymerization [16]. However, the azo initiator was functionalized with a TEMPO-based alkoxyamine. Since the main mechanism of termination during bulk MMA polymerization is by radical coupling, most of the MMA polymer chain-ends are functionalized with alkoxyamine groups. 

At its simplest, the mechanism of free-radical polymerization consists of free-radical production by an initiator (initiation), link-up of the free radical with a monomer molecule (often considered part of initiation), addition of further monomer (propagation), and eventual deactivation (termination) of the growing polymer radicals by coupling, also called combination, that is, by link-up of two radicals with one another. This is much as in ordinary chain reactions (see Section 9.5). Free-radical polymerization of styrene may serve as an example [31,32]. 

In free-radical polymerization with termination by coupling, there are three possible termination steps reaction of end groups -MA with -MA, of -MA with —Mb, and of -MB with — MB. Each eliminates two reactive end groups. Leaving the possibility open that all steps contribute significantly, the termination rntc is... 

Free-radical polymerization requires initiation to produce free radicals that link up with monomer molecules to produce reactive centers. Additional monomer molecules are then added successively at these centers. In this way, a small family of polymer radicals acts as an assembly line to produce "dead" polymer. The most common termination mechanisms are reactions of two polymer radicals with one another, either by coupling to yield one larger dead polymer molecule or, more rarely, by disproportionation to convert... 

In conventional free radical polymerization, the initiation, propagation, and termination are kinetically coupled. Consequently, the increase of initiation rate increases the overall polymerization rate but reduces the degree of polymerization. In contrast to this situation (kinetically coupled initiation, propagation, and termination), the formation of chemically reactive species is not the initiation of a subsequent polymerization. Under such an activation/deactivation decoupled reaction system, the mechanism for how chemically reactive species are created and how these species react to form solid material deposition cannot be viewed in analogy to polymerization. 

The formation of radicals by the deprotonation of a-amino radical cations is an important method of initiating free-radical polymerization. A mechanism of polymerization photoinitiated by the BP-amine couple (Scheme 11) involves such a process [101-104]. 

Gosh and Gosh [105] studied photoinitiated polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated by the BP-TV,A-dimethylaniline couple, and Clarke and Shanks [106] tested the influence of a variety of amines on benzophenone-initiated polymerization. That amino radicals resulted during the initiation the polymerization by benzophenone-tertiary aromatic amines was shown by Li through the use of ESR and spin-trapping methods [107]. It was shown that the rate of photoinitiated polymerization depends on the structure of the amine. More recently [108] benzophenone-tertiary aromatic amines were studied as initiators of the free-radical polymerization of polyol acrylates. Illustrative kinetic curves recorded during photoinitiated polymerization of TMPTA are shown in Figure 23. 

Flory Statistics of the Molecular Weight Distribution. The solution to the complete set (j - I to j = 100,000) of coupled-nonlinear ordinary differential equations needed to calculate the distribution is an enormous undertaking even with the fastest computers. However, we can use probability theory to estimate the distribution. This theory was developed by Nobel laureate Paul Floty. We have shown that for step ipolymeiization and for free radical polymerization in which termination is by disproportionation the mole fraction of polymer -with chain length j is... 

Several synthetic strategies are used to produce block copolymers containing a cationic block. Because charged monomers are not polymerizable by ionic techniques, the synthesis of the required block copolymers can be carried out by free radical polymerization of ionic vinyl monomers using macroinitiators, by modifying one block of a block copolymer and by coupling of two readily synthesized blocks. 

At first glance, radical polymerization may be considered a mature technology with millions of tons of vinyl based homo- and copolymers being produced annually. This perception of maturity is based on the fact that free radical polymerization is so widely used industrially and in research laboratories for the synthesis of a wide variety of polymeric materials. This widespread adoption is due to its versatility, synthetic ease, and compatibility with a wide variety of functional groups, coupled with its tolerance to water and protic media. These features make possible the development of emulsion and suspension techniques, which greatly simplifies the experimental set up and has led to wide commercial adoption. 

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