Ionic polymerization temperature

Even though the catalyst may be only partially converted to H B", the concentration of these ions may be on the order of 10 times greater than the concentration of free radicals in the corresponding stationary state of the radical mechanism. Likewise, kp for ionic polymerization is on the order of 100 times larger than the sum of the constants for all termination and transfer steps. By contrast, kp/kj which is pertinent for the radical mechanism, is typically on the order of 10. These comparisons illustrate that ionic polymerizations occur very fast even at low temperatures. 

A factor in addition to the RTD and temperature distribution that affects the molecular weight distribution (MWD) is the nature of the chemical reaciion. If the period during which the molecule is growing is short compared with the residence time in the reactor, the MWD in a batch reactor is broader than in a CSTR. This situation holds for many free radical and ionic polymerization processes where the reaction intermediates are very short hved. In cases where the growth period is the same as the residence time in the reactor, the MWD is narrower in batch than in CSTR. Polymerizations that have no termination step—for instance, polycondensations—are of this type. This topic is treated by Denbigh (J. Applied Chem., 1, 227 [1951]). 

Thus, the dissociation equilibrium is affected by the ionic strength, temperature and dielectric constant of the solvent as well as by the parameter h (involved in AGf,). On the other hand, the term dG /dn does not depend on the degree of polymerization (except for very small values of n). The degree of polymerization does not affect, for example, the course of the potentiometric titration of a poly acid. 

The existence of chain transfer in ionic polymerizations was first found in the system isobutene-BFj at room temperature when it was discovered that very small traces of water, tert-butanol, or acetic acid would, as co-catalysts, cause the transformation of large quantities of monomer to very low unsaturated polymers [2, 5]. It was assumed that the process involved proton transfer, and there is no cause to change this view ... 

Since the required activation energy for ionic polymerization is small, these reactions may occur at very low temperatures. The carbocations, including the macrocarbocations, repel one another hence, chain termination does not occur by combination but is usually the result of reaction with impurities. 

Monomer and initiator must be soluble in the liquid and the solvent must have the desired chain-transfer characteristics, boiling point (above the temperature necessary to carry out the polymerization and low enough to allow for ready removal if the polymer is recovered by solvent evaporation). The presence of the solvent assists in heat removal and control (as it also does for suspension and emulsion polymerization systems). Polymer yield per reaction volume is lower than for bulk reactions. Also, solvent recovery and removal (from the polymer) is necessary. Many free radical and ionic polymerizations are carried out utilizing solution polymerization including water-soluble polymers prepared in aqueous solution (namely poly(acrylic acid), polyacrylamide, and poly(A-vinylpyrrolidinone). Polystyrene, poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(vinyl chloride), and polybutadiene are prepared from organic solution polymerizations. 

Ionic polymerizations usually proceed at lower temperatures than radical polymerizations. Although ionic reaction temperatures are usually below 0°C, there are numerous ionic polymerizations that proceed at temperatures somewhat above 0°C. Radical polymerizations, on the other hand, almost always proceed at temperatures appreciably above approximately 50°C. Furthermore, ionic polymerizations invariably have lower... 

The species present in cationic ring-opening polymerizations are covalent ester (IX), ion pair (X), and free ion (XI) in equilibrium. The relative amounts of the different species depend on the monomer, solvent, temperature, and other reaction conditions, similar to the situation described for ionic polymerization of C=C monomers (Chap. 5). 

In ionic polymerizations, the molecular weight can be regulated by temperature, type of catalyst and nature of solvent. In some cases also regulators can be used which, as in the case of cationic polymerization of trioxane, lead to the incorporation of special endgroups. 

In contrast to radical polymerizations, ionic polymerizations proceed at high rates even at low temperatures, since the initiation and propagation reactions have only small activation energies. For example, isobutylene is polymerized commercially with boron trifluoride in liquid propane at -100 °C (see Example 3-16). The polymerization temperature often has a considerable influence on the structure of the resulting polymer. 

The strong temperature dependence of x below T serves to define another characteristic temperature of glass formation, the Vogel temperature T o- An astoundingly large class of hquids (ionic, polymeric, biological materials. 

An obvious question then arose is this a phenomenon common to all vinyl monomers In other words is this exclusion of water sufficient to promote radiation-induced ionic polymerizations even in media of very low dielectric constant and at room temperature We believe that the answer to both forms of the question is yes, although it may be difficult to achieve the proper conditions in some systems. 

Cyclopolymerization of dialdehydes was extensively studied by Aso and his coworkers (50). It was remarkable that o-phthalaldehyde could be polymerized readily (5Z-53), because aromatic aldehydes such as benzaldehyde, isophthalaldehyde and terephthalaldehyde did not polymerize with common ionic catalysts. In addition, the poly[o-phthal-aldehyde] obtained was composed of only cyclic structural units. These results suggested that the driving force for the polymerization of o-phthalaldehyde was apparently attributable to the formation of the five-membered ring in the course of cyclopolymerization. The ceiling temperature of the polymerization of o-phthalaldehyde was calculated to be — 43° C from the relationship between the equilibrium concentration of the monomer and the polymerization temperature (51,52). 

The most important feature of ionizing radiations is, as the term implies, ionization to give ionic intermediates in irradiated systems. Though radiation-induced radical polymerization had long been studied, it is only a decade since radiation-induced ionic polymerization was first found. In 1957, Davison et al. obtained polymer from isobutene, which is known not to be polymerized by radical catalysts, by irradiating at low temperature with y-rays (7). Before long, the radiation-induced polymerization of styrene was proved to proceed as an ionic mechanism in suitable solvents (2,3,4). Since these pioneering researches, the study of the chemical kinetics of radiation-induced ionic polymerization has been extended to several vinyl, diene and cyclic monomers. 

It seems to the present authors that the above-mentioned scheme of the initiation process in the glass matrices can be extended, at least, to the radiation-induced ionic polymerizations in liquid solutions at higher temperatures. This will be verified by rapid techniques of measurement, such as the pulse radiolysis method. 

Basilevsky et al. [1982] proposed a mechanism of ionic polymerization in crystalline formaldehyde that was based on Semenov s assumption [Semenov, 1960] that solid-state chain reactions are possible only when the products of each chain step prepare a configuration of reactants that is suitable for the next step. Monomer crystals for which low-temperature polymerization has been observed fulfill this condition. In the initial equilibrium state the monomer molecules are located in lattice sites and the creation of a chemical bond requires surmounting a high barrier. However, upon creation of the primary cation (protonated formaldehyde), the active center shifts toward another monomer, and the barrier for addition of the next link diminishes. Likewise, subsequent polymerization steps involve motion of the cationic end of the polymer toward a neighboring monomer, which results in a low barrier to formation of the next C-0 bond. Since the covalent bond lengths in the polymer are much shorter than the van der Waals distances of the monomer crystal, this polymerization process cannot take place in a strictly linear fashion. It is believed that this difference is made up at least in part by rotation of each CH20 link as it is incorporated into the chain. 

Styrene-Divinylbenzene Networks. Using ionic polymerization methods, Rietsch et al. (1976) prepared polystyrene (PS) networks with a well-controlled length of elastically active chains and crosslinks of variable functionality. In a given series, the glass transition temperature obeys the classical free volume theory ... 

Albertsson et al. [55, 56,95, 114, 125-138] have done extensive work on the homo- and copolymerizations of lactones in bulk as well as in solutions using ROP. In bulk polymerization temperatures in the range of 100-150 °C were used while in solution polymerization, the temperature was kept low, 0 to 25 °C, to minimize side-reactions such as intra- and intermolecular transesterification reactions. Only oligomers were formed when DXO was (co)polymerized using an ionic initiator. Poly(DXO) of high molecular weight (>150,000) was obtained using tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate [127]. 

However one constraint of alkoxylated Surfmers is their cloud point versus the polymerization temperature. If the former is lower than the latter, salting-out of the Surfmer occurs, with loss of surface activity and reactivity. The cloud point of nonionic alkoxylates can be adjusted to a certain extent by the choice of the alkoxylation initiator, the relative percentage of hydrophilic and hydrophobic alkoxylation moieties and their order of addition. Also, introducing some ionic character in the molecule (e.g. by weak polar groups that do not substantially affect the nonionic behavior of the molecule) may prove useful. Nevertheless there have been and there can be instances where nonionic Surfmers cannot be used. 

The cleansing action of the high temperature, low pressure treatment of the glassware appears to be a very important step in the over-all preparation of the sample. Without it, even rigorously dried monomer may not exhibit the intended ionic polymerization (29, 34). 

Figure 5 Effect of temperature on rate constants of propagation, depropagation, transfer to monomer, transfer to triflate anion, and indan formation in the carbocat-ionic polymerization of styrene (From Ref. 292).

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