Ionic free radical polymerization

It might be noted that most (not all) alkenes are polymerizable by the chain mechanism involving free-radical intermediates, whereas the carbonyl group is generally not polymerized by the free-radical mechanism. Carbonyl groups and some carbon-carbon double bonds are polymerized by ionic mechanisms. Monomers display far more specificity where the ionic mechanism is involved than with the free-radical mechanism. For example, acrylamide will polymerize through an anionic intermediate but not a cationic one, A -vinyl pyrrolidones by cationic but not anionic intermediates, and halogenated olefins by neither ionic species. In all of these cases free-radical polymerization is possible. 

The molecular weight distribution for a polymer like that described above is remarkably narrow compared to free-radical polymerization or even to ionic polymerization in which transfer or termination occurs. The sharpness arises from the nearly simultaneous initiation of all chains and the fact that all active centers grow as long as monomer is present. The following steps outline a quantitative treatment of this effect ... 

Among other possible reactions, these free radicals can initiate ordinary free-radical polymerization. The Ziegler-Natta systems are thus seen to encompass several mechanisms for the initiation of polymerization. Neither ionic nor free-radical mechanisms account for stereoregularity, however, so we must look further for the mechanism whereby the Ziegler-Natta systems produce this interesting effect. 

In contrast to ionic chain polymerizations, free radical polymerizations offer a facile route to copolymers ([9] p. 459). The ability of monomers to undergo copolymerization is described by the reactivity ratios, which have been tabulated for many monomer systems for a tabulation of reactivity ratios, see Section 11/154 in Brandrup and Immergut [14]. These tabulations must be used with care, however, as reactivity ratios are not always calculated in an optimum manner [15]. Systems in which one reactivity ratio is much greater than one (1) and the other is much less than one indicate poor copolymerization. Such systems form a mixture of homopolymers rather than a copolymer. Uncontrolled phase separation may take place, and mechanical properties can suffer. An important ramification of the ease of forming copolymers will be discussed in Section 3.1. 

Noda and Watanabe [42] reported a simple synthetic procedure for the free radical polymerization of vinyl monomers to give conducting polymer electrolyte films. Direct polymerization in the ionic liquid gives transparent, mechanically strong and highly conductive polymer electrolyte films. This was the first time that ambient-temperature ionic liquids had been used as a medium for free radical polymerization of vinyl monomers. The ionic liquids [EMIM][BF4] and [BP][Bp4] (BP is N-butylpyridinium) were used with equimolar amounts of suitable monomers, and polymerization was initiated by prolonged heating (12 hours at 80 °C) with benzoyl... 

Table 7.3-2 Free radical polymerization of MMA in the ionic liquid [BMIM][PFg] [44].

The effects of increasing the concentration of initiator (i.e., increased conversion, decreased M , and broader PDi) and of reducing the reaction temperature (i.e., decreased conversion, increased M , and narrower PDi) for the polymerizations in ambient-temperature ionic liquids are the same as observed in conventional solvents. May et al. have reported similar results and in addition used NMR to investigate the stereochemistry of the PMMA produced in [BMIM][PFgj. They found that the stereochemistry was almost identical to that for PMMA produced by free radical polymerization in conventional solvents [43]. The homopolymerization and copolymerization of several other monomers were also reported. Similarly to the findings of Noda and Watanabe, the polymer was in many cases not soluble in the ionic liquid and thus phase-separated [43, 44]. 

The previous sections show that certain ionic liquids, namely the chloroalumi-nate(III) ionic liquids, are capable of acting both as catalyst and as solvent for the polymerization of certain olefins, although in a somewhat uncontrolled manner, and that other ionic liquids, namely the non-chloroaluminate(III) ionic liquids, are capable of acting as solvents for free radical polymerization processes. In attempts to carry out polymerization reactions in a more controlled manner, several studies have used dissolved transition metal catalysts in ambient-temperature ionic liquids and have investigated the compatibility of the catalyst towards a range of polymerization systems. 

Even within the small numbers of studies conducted to date, we are already seeing potentially dramatic effects. Free radical polymerization proceeds at a much faster rate and there is already evidence that both the rate of propagation and the rate of termination are effected. Whole polymerization types - such as ring-opening polymerization to esters and amides, and condensation polymerization of any type (polyamides, polyesters, for example) - have yet to be attempted in ionic liquids. This field is in its infancy and we look forward to the coming years with great anticipation. 

The block copolymer produced by Bamford s metal carbonyl/halide-terminated polymers photoinitiating systems are, therefore, more versatile than those based on anionic polymerization, since a wide range of monomers may be incorporated into the block. Although the mean block length is controllable through the parameters that normally determine the mean kinetic chain length in a free radical polymerization, the molecular weight distributions are, of course, much broader than with ionic polymerization and the polymers are, therefore, less well defined,... 

Preferential addition to one end or the other of a vinyl (CH2=CHX) or substituted vinyl (CH2=CXY) monomer seems to be the rule to which exceptions are rare. This generalization appears to apply to ionic as well as to free radical polymerizations. The polymers of mono-unsaturated compounds consequently are characterized by a high degree of head-to-tail regularity in the arrangement of successive units. Little is known concerning the sequence of d and I configurations of the asym-... 

Living free-radical polymerization has recently attracted considerable attention since it enables the preparation of polymers with well-controlled composition and molecular architecture previously the exclusive domain of ionic polymerizations, using very robust conditions akin to those of a simple radical polymerization [77 - 86]. In one of the implementations, the grafting is achieved by employing the terminal nitroxide moieties of a monolith prepared in the presence of a stable free radical such as 2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-l-pyperidinyloxy (TEMPO). In this way, the monolith is prepared first and its dormant free-... 

Another system under investigation is the iron/ chromium redox flow battery (Fe/Cr RFB) developed by NASA. The performance requirements of the membrane for Fe/Cr RFB are severe. The membrane must readily permit the passage of chloride ions, but should not allow any mixing of the chromium and iron ions. An anionic permselective membrane CDIL-AA5-LC-397, developed by Ionics, Inc., performed well in this system. ° It was prepared by a free radical polymerization of vinylbenzyl chloride and dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate in a 1 1 molar ratio. One major issue with the anionic membranes was its increase in resistance during the time it was exposed to a ferric chloride solution. The resistance increase termed fouling is related to the ability of the ferric ion to form ferric chloride complexes, which are not electrically repelled by the anionic membrane. An experiment by Arnold and Assink indicated that... 

While in most of the reports on SIP free radical polymerization is utihzed, the restricted synthetic possibihties and lack of control of the polymerization in terms of the achievable variation of the polymer brush architecture limited its use. The alternatives for the preparation of weU-defined brush systems were hving ionic polymerizations. Recently, controlled radical polymerization techniques has been developed and almost immediately apphed in SIP to prepare stracturally weU-de-fined brush systems. This includes living radical polymerization using nitroxide species such as 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidin-l-oxyl (TEMPO) [285], reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization mainly utilizing dithio-carbamates as iniferters (iniferter describes a molecule that functions as an initiator, chain transfer agent and terminator during polymerization) [286], as well as atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) were the free radical is formed by a reversible reduction-oxidation process of added metal complexes [287]. All techniques rely on the principle to drastically reduce the number of free radicals by the formation of a dormant species in equilibrium to an active free radical. By this the characteristic side reactions of free radicals are effectively suppressed. 

Compared with free radical polymerizations, the kinetics of ionic polymerizations are not well defined. Reactions can use heterogeneous initiators and they are usually quite sensitive to the presence of impurities. Thus, kinetic studies are difficult and the results sensitive to the particular reaction conditions. Further, the rates of polymer formation are more rapid. 

Strongly electrophilic or nucleophilic monomers will polymerize exclusively by anionic or cationic mechanisms. However, monomers that are neither strongly electrophilic nor nucleophilic generally polymerize by ionic and free radical processes. The contrast between anionic, cationic, and free radical methods of addition copolymerization is clearly illustrated by the results of copolymerization utilizing the three modes of initiation (Figure 7.1). Such results illustrate the variations of reactivities and copolymer composition that are possible from employing the different initiation modes. The free radical tie-line resides near the middle since free radical polymerizations are less dependent on the electronic nature of the comonomers relative to the ionic modes of chain propagation. 

The suitability of ionic liquids (e.g., [EMIM]BF4, [BMIMjPFg, or [OMIM]Tf2N) for free-radical polymerization was explored 249). The homopolymerization of 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone in [BMIMJPFg or that of 4-vinylpyridine in [OMIM]Tf2N resulted in polymers with Mw of 162 500 and 71 500 g/mol, respectively. However, detectable ionic liquid residues were retained in the isolated polymers, even after repeated precipitations from methanol, which is known to dissolve the ionic liquid. The residue may limit the usefulness of ionic liquids as the media for free-radical polymerizations. 

Having established that a particular polymerization follows Bemoullian or first-order Markov or catalyst site control behavior tells us about the mechanism by which polymer stereochemistry is determined. The Bemoullian model describes those polymerizations in which the chain end determines stereochemistry, due to interactions between either the last two units in the chain or the last unit in the chain and the entering monomer. This corresponds to the generally accepted mechanism for polymerizations proceeding in a nonco-ordinated manner to give mostly atactic polymer—ionic polymerizations in polar solvents and free-radical polymerizations. Highly isoselective and syndioselective polymerizations follow the catalyst site control model as expected. Some syndioselective polymerizations follow Markov behavior, which is indicative of a more complex form of chain end control. 

Figure 4.3 Scheme illustrating the development of immobilized ionic liquids by thermally induced free radical polymerization of vinyl-substituted imidazolium-based monocationic and dicationic monomers. 

Recently most of the polymer studies, not only ionic but radical polymerization, too, have been carried out in organic media. However, polymer chemists engaging in electropolymeiization have come upon many difficult problems when they introduced the electrolytic processes to their own field of chemistry, because there has been little knowledge of the electrochemistry in organic media free from water. The problems were how to choose organic solvents and supporting electrolytes which would not affect the polymerization, electrodes and cells to be used in the electropolymerization. 

It is not possible at our present stage of knowledge to place all of the catalysts in exact position relative to their ionic nature. The "mid point may be displaced some to either direction. Most catalysts contain several different components with different degrees of ionicity. Which component acts as the active catalyst for a particular double bond is unknown in most cases. Only crude presentations are possible until techniques have been developed to determine the actual ionic nature of the propagating species in isotactic ionic polymerization s such as ESR is capable of in free radical polymerizations. 

This review deals with current ideas on the mechanisms operative in acrylonitrile polymerization. The topic is of importance in its own right and also because the study of acrylonitrile has cast light on heterogeneous polymerizations in general. It is an active field of research and the interpretations are still controversial. We shall look first at free-radical polymerization in homogeneous solution, where the monomer behaves in a more or less classical fashion. Next we shall consider the complications that arise where the monomer is at least partially soluble in the reaction medium but where the polymer precipitates. These conditions are encountered in bulk polymerization and in most aqueous or organic diluents. Finally we shall examine the less extensive literature on anionic polymerization and show important differences between the radical and the ionic processes. 

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