Lewis acidic polymeric boronates

With the improvement of refining and purification techniques, many pure olefinic monomers are available for polymerization. Under Lewis acid polymerization, such as with boron trifluoride, very light colored resins are routinely produced. These resins are based on monomers such as styrene, a-methylstryene, and vinyltoluene (mixed meta- and i ra-methylstyrene). More recently, purified i ra-methylstyrene has become commercially available and is used in resin synthesis. Low molecular weight thermoplastic resins produced from pure styrene have been available since the mid-1940s resins obtained from substituted styrenes are more recent. 

Cationic mechanisms are much more characteristic of the polymerization of oxygen heterocycles, both ethers and acetals. A wide variety of catalysts has been used, including protonic acids, such Lewis acids as boron trifluoride, phosphorus pentafluoride, stannic chloride, antimony pentachloride, titanium tetrachloride, zinc chloride, and ferric chloride, and salts of carbocations or tri-alkyloxonium ions having anions derived from Lewis acids. Some complex, coordination catalysts that appear to operate by a mechanism... 

Korshak and coworkers20 polymerized levoglucosan in p-dioxane at 80-90°, using, as the catalyst, benzenesulfonic acid or such Lewis acids as boron trifluoride, ferric chloride, or aluminum chloride. Highly branched, amorphous products having Ma 38,000-68,000 (by light-scattering) were obtained. 

Adhesives which are meant to cure at temperatures of 120 or 171°C require curatives which are latent at room temperature, but react quickly at the cure temperatures. Dicyanodiamide [461-58-5], (TH INI is one such latent curative for epoxy resins. It is insoluble in the epoxy at room temperature but rapidly solubilizes at elevated temperatures. Other latent curatives for 171°C are complexes of imidazoles with transition metals, complexes of Lewis acids (eg, boron trifluoride and amines), and diaminodiphenylsulfone, which is also used as a curing agent in high performance composites. For materials which cure at lower temperatures (120°C), these curing agents can be made more soluble by alkylation of dicyanodiamide. Other materials providing latency at room temperature but rapid cure at 120°C are the blocked isocyanates, such as the reaction products of toluene diisocyanate and amines. At 120°C the blocked isocyanate decomposes to regenerate the isocyanate and liberate an amine which can initiate polymerization of the epoxy resin. Materials such as Monuron can also be used to accelerate the cure of dicyanodiamide so that it takes place at 120°C. 

Monomers with electron-donating groups like isobutylene form stable positive charges and are readily converted to polymers by cationic catalysts. Any strong Lewis acid like boron trifluoride (BF3) or Friedel-Crafts catalysts such as AICI3 can readily initiate cationic polymerization in the presence of a cocatalyst like water, which serves as a Lewis base or source of protons. During initiation, a proton adds to the monomer to form a carbonium ion, which forms an association with the counterion. This is illustrated for isobutylene and boron trifluoride in Equation 2.19 ... 

The polymerization o oxetanes with cationic catalysts has been studied by many investigators. (1.H2) RoseC. ), in particular, first reported the homopolymerization of the parent compound, tri-methylene oxide (TMO), with a Lewis acid catalyst, boron trifluoride. The use of coordination catalysts to polymerize oxetanes has been reported in the patent literature by Vandenberg.W In this work, Vandenberg polymerized oxetanes with the aluminum trialkyl -water-acetylacetone coordination catalyst (referred to as chelate catalyst) that he discovered for epoxide polymerization . This paper describes the homo- and co-polymerization of TMO with these coordination catalysts. Specific TMO copolymers, particularly with unsaturated epoxides such as allyl glycidyl ether (AGE), are shown to provide the basis for a new family o polyether elastomers. These new elastomers are compared with the related propylene oxide-allyl glycidyl ether (PO-AGE) copolymer elastomers. The historical development and general characteristics of polyether elastomers and, in particular, the propylene oxide elastomers, are reviewed below. 

Beckett MA, Strickland GC, Holland JR, Sukumar Varma K. A convenient n.m.r. method for the measurement of Lewis acidity at boron centres correlation of reaction rates of Lewis acid initiated epoxide polymerizations with Lewis acidity. Polymer. 1996 37 4629-4631. 

Friedel-Crafts (Lewis) acids have been shown to be much more effective in the initiation of cationic polymerization when in the presence of a cocatalyst such as water, alkyl haUdes, and protic acids. Virtually all feedstocks used in the synthesis of hydrocarbon resins contain at least traces of water, which serves as a cocatalyst. The accepted mechanism for the activation of boron trifluoride in the presence of water is shown in equation 1 (10). Other Lewis acids are activated by similar mechanisms. In a more general sense, water may be replaced by any appropriate electron-donating species (eg, ether, alcohol, alkyl haUde) to generate a cationic intermediate and a Lewis acid complex counterion. 

Cationic polymerization of coal-tar fractions has been commercially achieved through the use of strong protic acids, as well as various Lewis acids. Sulfuric acid was the first polymerization catalyst (11). More recent technology has focused on the Friedel-Crafts polymerization of coal fractions to yield resins with higher softening points and better color. Typical Lewis acid catalysts used in these processes are aluminum chloride, boron trifluoride, and various boron trifluoride complexes (12). Cmde feedstocks typically contain 25—75% reactive components and may be refined prior to polymerization (eg, acid or alkali treatment) to remove sulfur and other undesired components. Table 1 illustrates the typical components found in coal-tar fractions and their corresponding properties. 

The most important reaction with Lewis acids such as boron trifluoride etherate is polymerization (Scheme 30) (72MI50601). Other Lewis acids have been used SnCL, Bu 2A1C1, Bu sAl, Et2Zn, SO3, PFs, TiCU, AICI3, Pd(II) and Pt(II) salts. Trialkylaluminum, dialkylzinc and other alkyl metal initiators may partially hydrolyze to catalyze the polymerization by an anionic mechanism rather than the cationic one illustrated in Scheme 30. Cyclic dimers and trimers are often products of cationic polymerization reactions, and desulfurization of the monomer may occur. Polymerization of optically active thiiranes yields optically active polymers (75MI50600). 

Homogeneous catalysts are also often used in cationic and anionic polymerization processes. Lewis acid catalysts, such as boron trifluoride and stannic chloride, accept protons from co-... 

Figure 36 Organoboron polymers of PS with well-defined boron-containing Lewis acids for use as a cocatalyst in metallocene-catalyzed olefin polymerizations. (Adapted from ref. 81.)... 

Usually the stronger acids are also the more effective co-catalysts, but exceptions to this rule are known. Trichloroacetic acid, but not the equally strong picric acid, will co-catalyze the system isobutene-titanium tetrachloride in hexane.2 8 Some Lewis acid-olefin systems will not polymerize at all in the absence of a co-catalyst, an example being isobutene with boron trifluoride.2 4 This fact, together with the markedly slower reaction usual with carefully dried materials, has nourished the current suspicion that a co-catalyst may be necessary in every Lewis acid-olefin polymerization. It is very difficult to eliminate small traces of water which could act as a co-catalyst or generate mineral acid, and it may well be that the reactions which are slower when drier would not go at all if they could be made completely dry. 

The first species produced in cationic polymerizations are carbocations, and these were unknown as such prior to World War II. It is now known that pure Lewis acids, such as boron trifluoride and aluminum chloride, are not effective as initiators. A trace of a proton-containing Lewis base, such as water, is also required. The Lewis base coordinates with the electrophilic Lewis acid, and the proton is the actual initiator. Since cations cannot exist alone, they are accompanied by a counterion, also called a gegenion. 

Tris(pentafluorophenyl)boron [(CgF5)3B], a triarylboron bearing electron-withdrawing perfluorinated phenyl rings, was found to be much more powerful than (05115)36 as a Lewis acid accelerator for the present polymerization. When (0565)36 was added at room temperature to the polymerization system at an equimolar ratio of (0565)36 to the growing species 2, the polymerization took place rapidly with considerable heat evolution, attaining 100% monomer conversion within only about 10 min [6ig. 13 ( )]. This polymerization was estimated to be 150-times faster than that in the absence of (0565)36, and 12.5-times faster than that with (05115)36 as a Lewis acid under similar conditions. 

Several catalysts and initiator systems have been tested for the polymerization of GlcAnBzl3, including the following Lewis acids boron trifluoride and its etherate, phosphorus pentafluoride, titanium tetrachloride, and antimony pentachloride and pentafluoride. Several cationic initiators have also been used, including (triphenylmethyl) antimony hexachloride, 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-D-glucopyranosyl hexa-fluorophosphate, acetyl hexafluorophosphate, pentamethylbenzyl hexa-fluorophosphate (most of which were generated in situ), and triethyl-... 

Starting ingredients may be formaldehyde or the cyclic trimer rrioxane, CH2OCH2OCH2O. Both form polymers of similar properties. Boron trifluoride of other Lewis acids are used to promote polymerization where trioxane is the raw material. 

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