Ionic polymerizations reaction temperatures

Vijayaraghavan and MacFarlane [17] reported the cationic polymerization of styrene using AICI3 as a catalyst in N-butyl-N-meth)4pyrrohdinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide. The products were compared vyith the polymers formed in a traditional organic solvent (dichloromethane, DCM). The ionic liquid reaction produced lower molecular weights and polydispersity compared to the reaction in DCM. This was attributed to differences in the concentration of the active initiator species in each case. They also reported the use of a novel Bronsted acid catalyst, bis(oxalato)boric acid (HBOB), in the cationic polymerization of styrene in the ionic liquid. Reaction temperatures of 60 °C were required... 

The direct relationships between activation free energies and tacticity observed for free radical polymerization reactions are seldom encountered in ionic polymerization reactions In these systems, temperature not only affects the propagation rate constant, but it also controls the ion pair equilibrium of the active endgroups. That is, in most ionic polymerization reactions, the active endgroup is in the form of some type of ion pair, and each type of ion pair will most likely have its own ratio of rate constants, kj to k which controls tacticity. As a result, two or more different kinds of active endgroups can exist in dynamic equilibrium with each other and grow concurrently, as indicated below (9)... 

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]). 

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. 

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 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. 

Seddon showed that l-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium chloride-aluminum(lll) chlorides are ionic liquids at temperatures as low as -90°C (Seddon, 1996 Earle and Seddon, 2000). These nonvolatile ionic liquids can solvate a wide range of organic reactions including oligomerisations, polymerizations (Lynn et al., 2000), alkylations (Ross et al., 2001), and acylations (Seddon, 1997 Welton, 1999). 

The five-membered cyclic amide pyrrolidone has achieved widespread attention in the area of heterocyclic polymers since the first preparation and polymerization reactions of l-vinylpyrrolidin-2-one (1) were reported in the early 1940s. Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (2) and its copolymers are among the most thoroughly studied heterocyclic addition polymers (B-74MI11100). Monomer (1) is readily polymerized (B-77MI11100) both free radically and ionically (Scheme 1). The former method is by far the most important, and allows the preparation of a wide variety of copolymers. Interestingly, in the homopolymerization of vinylpyrrolidone (1), the molecular weight of the polymer obtained does not appear to be influenced by the initiator concentration or the reaction temperature. 

The solution thus consists of different particles denoted as contact ion pairs, solvent-separated ion pairs and free ions. The fraction of the individual particles depends on the type of salt, type of solvent, polymerization system, temperature, and salt concentration. The catalytic effect of these particles may be very different as is evident in anionic polymerization of vinyl monomers. For instance, free polystyryl anion is 800times more reactive than its ion pair with the sodium counterion 60 . From this fact it follows that, although the portion of free ions is small in the reaction system, they may play an important role. On the other hand, anionic polymerization and copolymerization of heterocycles proceeds mostly via ion pairs. This is due to a strong localization of the negative charge on the chain-end heteroatom which strongly stabilizes the ion pair itself62. Ionic dissociation constants and ion contributions to the reaction kinetics are usually low. This means that for heterocycles the difference between the catalytic effect of ion pairs and free ions is much weaker than for the polymerization of unsaturated compounds. This is well documented by the copolymerization of anhydrides with epoxides where the substi-... 

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. 

Using this approach, hydrophilic (neutral or ionic) comonomers, such as end-captured short polyethylene oxide (PEO) chains (macromonomer), l-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (VP), acrylic acid (AA) and N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMA), can be grafted and inserted on the thermally sensitive chain backbone by free radical copolymerization in aqueous solutions at different reaction temperatures higher or lower than its lower critical solution temperature (LCST). When the reaction temperature is higher than the LOST, the chain backbone becomes hydrophobic and collapses into a globular form during the polymerization, which acts as a template so that most of the hydrophilic comonomers are attached on its surface to form a core-shell structure. The dissolution of such a core-shell nanostructure leads to a protein-like heterogeneous distribution of hydrophilic comonomers on the chain backbone. 

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]. 

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