Lithium polymerization with nitrogen

Lithium diethylamide has been shown to be an effective initiator for the homopolymerization of dienes and styrene llr2). It is also known that such a polymerization process is markedly affected by the presence of polar compounds, such as ethers and amines (2,3). However, there has been no report of the use of a lithium amide containing a built-in polar modifier as a diene polymerization initiator. This paper describes the preparation and use of such an initiator, lithium morpholinide. A comparison between polymerization with this initiator and lithium diethyl amide, with and without polar modifiers, is included. Furthermore, we have examined the effects of lithium-nitrogen initiators on the copolymerization of butadiene and styrene. 

---