Grafting site, polystyrene polymers

A study of methods for controlling the grafting sites of polystyrene polymers may serve as an example for the quantitative and structural analysis of the site of lithiation. Trimethylsilyl chloride serves as the quenching agent owing to the low incidence of side reactions besides metal replacement. Thus, on varying the conditions of metallation of low molecular weight polystyrene (409) and poly(4-methylstyrene) (410), aromatic and... 

The concept is similar to the grafting of plants in botany. To form a styrene-butadiene graft polymer, already polymerized butadiene is dissolved in monomeric styrene and an initiator is added. Because polybutadiene readily undergoes chain transfer at the allylic sites, polystyrene chains grow on the polybutadiene backbone. This forms high impact polystyrene, a low cost plastic that is otherwise too brittle without the grafting. 

Figure 5.12. UV/vis spectra of polyacetylene/polystyrene block co-polymers, The ratio of acetylene to graft sites was increased from A to D. (Reprinted with permission from ref. 51)...

An effective method of NVF chemical modification is graft copolymerization [34,35]. This reaction is initiated by free radicals of the cellulose molecule. The cellulose is treated with an aqueous solution with selected ions and is exposed to a high-energy radiation. Then, the cellulose molecule cracks and radicals are formed. Afterwards, the radical sites of the cellulose are treated with a suitable solution (compatible with the polymer matrix), for example vinyl monomer [35] acrylonitrile [34], methyl methacrylate [47], polystyrene [41]. The resulting copolymer possesses properties characteristic of both fibrous cellulose and grafted polymer. 

In a similar way, Mizota et al. grafted polymer chains functionalized with sulfonic sites over a polystyrene-type polymer. As observed above, the flexibility of the polymer chains allowed better accessibility of the catalytic sites and this solid acid catalyst was ten times more active than the conventionally used cross-linked resin in the hydrolysis of sucrose (Scheme 2) [27]. 

The incorporation of diethyldithiocarbamate groups (Et)2N-C-S-R in a polymer produces active sites which on photolysis can be used for graft or block copolymerization depending on the location of the groups (185). By heating polystyrene with tetraethyl thiuram disulfide, Para substitution occurs... 

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