Metal catalysts polymerization

T.J. Pullukat, R.E. Hoff, M. Shida, in R. Quirk (Ed.), Titanium Modified Chromium Catalysts for Ethylene Polymerization, Symposium on Transition Metal Catalyst Polymerization, Proceedings, Michigan Molecular Institute, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1981, p. 697. 

The use of fluidized beds for gas-phase polymerization started in 1968 with the UNIPOL process, which was developed by Union Carbide to make high-density polyethylene. This process has now been adapted to produce other grades of polyethylene as well as polypropylene and various copolymers. The fluid bed is composed of porous particles, which are aggregates of polymer containing fine grains of titanium, chromium, or other metal catalyst. Polymerization takes place at the polymer-catalyst interface, and the particles grow larger over a period of several hours. Some of the polymer is withdrawn continuously or at intervals to maintain the bed... 

The addition of reagents containing X-H bonds in which X is more electronegative than H typically lead to addition across the M-C bond in the direction opposite to the addition of silane or borane to the early metal catalysts. Polymerization of etiiylene with lanthanide catalysts in the presence of phosphines generates phosphine-terminated polymers (Scheme 22.12) - by a mechanism in which the alkyl chain is protonated, and a metal-phosphido complex is generated. This phosphido complex then inserts olefin to start the growth of a phosphine-functionalized polyolefin. Marks subsequently showed that a similar process can be conducted witii amines. In this case, the bulky dicyclohexylamine was needed to sufficiently retard the rate of protonation to allow chain growth. The steric bulk also makes the olefin insertion more favorable thermodynamically. 

Ziegler catalysts Complex catalysts prepared by interaction between an organometallic derivative and a transition metal derivative. A typical catalyst is the product of the interaction of TiCU and AIBU3. These catalysts polymerize olefins, particularly ethylene, to polyolefins, the polymerization generally being in a siereoregular manner. 

The addition of alcohols to form the 3-alkoxypropionates is readily carried out with strongly basic catalyst (25). If the alcohol groups are different, ester interchange gives a mixture of products. Anionic polymerization to oligomeric acrylate esters can be obtained with appropriate control of reaction conditions. The 3-aIkoxypropionates can be cleaved in the presence of acid catalysts to generate acrylates (26). Development of transition-metal catalysts for carbonylation of olefins provides routes to both 3-aIkoxypropionates and 3-acryl-oxypropionates (27,28). Hence these are potential intermediates to acrylates from ethylene and carbon monoxide. 

Polymerization and GycliZation. Acetylene polymerizes at elevated temperatures and pressures which do not exceed the explosive decomposition point. Beyond this point, acetylene explosively decomposes to carbon and hydrogen. At 600—700°C and atmospheric pressure, benzene and other aromatics are formed from acetylene on heavy-metal catalysts. 

The production of CPO is based on relatively inexpensive cycHc substances these must be derivatized, however, to meet the requirements of resistance to heat softening and suitabiUty for metallization. Metathesis polymerization is problem-prone, since relatively large amounts of catalyst (WCl, C2H AlCl2) must be removed by solvent extraction (216). In the process, the price of CPO, at small batches, is several times higher than that of BPA-PC. 

Chemical Properties. Higher a-olefins are exceedingly reactive because their double bond provides the reactive site for catalytic activation as well as numerous radical and ionic reactions. These olefins also participate in additional reactions, such as oxidations, hydrogenation, double-bond isomerization, complex formation with transition-metal derivatives, polymerization, and copolymerization with other olefins in the presence of Ziegler-Natta, metallocene, and cationic catalysts. All olefins readily form peroxides by exposure to air. 

Others. Oxahc acid is used for the production of cobalt, as a raw material of various agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, for the manufacture of electronic materials (76—83), for the extraction of tungsten from ore (84), for the production of metal catalysts (85,86), as a polymerization initiator (87—89), and for the manufacture of zirconium (90) and beryhium oxide (91). 

An extremely wide variety of catalysts, Lewis acids, Brmnsted acids, metal oxides, molecular sieves, dispersed sodium and potassium, and light, are effective (Table 5). Generally, acidic catalysts are required for skeletal isomerization and reaction is accompanied by polymerization, cracking, and hydrogen transfer, typical of carbenium ion iatermediates. Double-bond shift is accompHshed with high selectivity by the basic and metallic catalysts. 

The discovery by Ziegler that ethylene and propylene can be polymerized with transition-metal salts reduced with trialkyl aluminum gave impetus to investigations of the polymerization of conjugated dienes (7—9). In 1955, synthetic polyisoprene (90—97% tij -l,4) was prepared using two new catalysts. A transition-metal catalyst was developed at B. E. Goodrich (10) and an alkaU metal catalyst was developed at the Ekestone Tke Rubber Co. (11). Both catalysts were used to prepare tij -l,4-polyisoprene on a commercial scale (9—19). 

Alkali Metal Catalysts. The polymerization of isoprene with sodium metal was reported in 1911 (49,50). In hydrocarbon solvent or bulk, the polymerization of isoprene with alkaU metals occurs heterogeneously, whereas in highly polar solvents the polymerization is homogeneous (51—53). Of the alkah metals, only lithium in bulk or hydrocarbon solvent gives over 90% cis-1,4 microstmcture. Sodium or potassium metals in / -heptane give no cis-1,4 microstmcture, and 48—58 mol % /ram-1,4, 35—42% 3,4, and 7—10% 1,2 microstmcture (46). Alkali metals in benzene or tetrahydrofuran with crown ethers form solutions that readily polymerize isoprene however, the 1,4 content of the polyisoprene is low (54). For example, the polyisoprene formed with sodium metal and dicyclohexyl-18-crown-6 (crown ether) in benzene at 10°C contains 32% 1,4-, 44% 3,4-, and 24% 1,2-isoprene units (54). 

Reviews dealing with a specific reaction or property from the heterocyclic point of view have been rarer—tautomerism (continued from Volume 1), free radical substitution, metal catalysts and pyri-dines, acid-catalyzed polymerization of pyrroles, and diazomethane reactions have been covered in this volume. 

When a mixture of alkenes 1 and 2 or an unsymmetrically substituted alkene 3 is treated with an appropriate transition-metal catalyst, a mixture of products (including fi/Z-isomers) from apparent interchange of alkylidene moieties is obtained by a process called alkene metathesis. With the development of new catalysts in recent years, alkene metathesis has become a useful synthetic method. Special synthetic applications are, for example, ring-closing metathesis (RCM) and ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROM) (see below). 

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. 

Acyclic diene molecules are capable of undergoing intramolecular and intermolec-ular reactions in the presence of certain transition metal catalysts molybdenum alkylidene and ruthenium carbene complexes, for example [50, 51]. The intramolecular reaction, called ring-closing olefin metathesis (RCM), affords cyclic compounds, while the intermolecular reaction, called acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization, provides oligomers and polymers. Alteration of the dilution of the reaction mixture can to some extent control the intrinsic competition between RCM and ADMET. 

In the process of radical polymerization a monomolecular short stop of the kinetic chain arises from the delocalization of the unpaired electron along the conjugated chain and from the competition of the developing polyconjugated system with the monomer for the delivery of rr-electrons to the nf-orbitals of a transition metal catalyst in the ionic coordination process. Such a deactivation of the active center may also be due to an interaction with the conjugated bonds of systems which have already been formed. 

An issue with ATRP is the residual metal catalyst and its removal from the polymer post-polymerization, Many papers have been written on catalyst removal and recycling.309... 

ADMET is quite possibly the most flexible transition-metal-catalyzed polymerization route known to date. With the introduction of new, functionality-tolerant robust catalysts, the primary limitation of this chemistry involves the synthesis and cost of the diene monomer that is used. ADMET gives the chemist a powerful tool for the synthesis of polymers not easily accessible via other means, and in this chapter, we designate the key elements of ADMET. We detail the synthetic techniques required to perform this reaction and discuss the wide range of properties observed from the variety of polymers that can be synthesized. For example, branched and functionalized polymers produced by this route provide excellent models (after quantitative hydrogenation) for the study of many large-volume commercial copolymers, and the synthesis of reactive carbosilane polymers provides a flexible route to solvent-resistant elastomers with variable properties. Telechelic oligomers can also be made which offer an excellent means for polymer modification or incorporation into block copolymers. All of these examples illustrate the versatility of ADMET. 

Transition metal coupling polymerization has also been used to synthesize optically active polymers with stable main-chain chirality such as polymers 33, 34, 35, and 36 by using optically active monomers.29-31 These polymers are useful for chiral separation and asymmetric catalysis. For example, polymers 33 and 34 have been used as polymeric chiral catalysts for asymmetric catalysis. Due... 

Development of more efficient transition metal catalyst systems including using novel and efficient ligands has been one of the focuses in organometallic chemistry.35 The developments in this area will allow not only to synthesize polymers under mild conditions with higher or desired molecular weights but also to use less expensive, more readily available materials for the polymerizations. 

In polyester synthesis via ring-opening polymerizations, metal catalysts are often used. For medical applications of polyesters, however, there has been concern about harmful effects of the metallic residues. Enzymatic synthesis of a metal-free polyester was demonstrated by the polymerization of l,4-dioxan-2-one using Candida antarctica lipase (lipase CA). Under appropriate reaction conditions, the high molecular weight polymer (molecular weight = 4.1 x 10" ) was obtained. 

Figure 6. Schematic representation of the micro- and nanoscale morphology of nanoclustered metal catalysts supported on gel-type (a) and macroreticular (b) resins [13]. The nanoclusters are represented as black spots. Level 1 is the representation of the dry materials. Level 2 is the representation of the microporous swollen materials at the same linear scale swelling involves the whole mass of the catalyst supported on the gel-type resin (2a) and the macropore walls in the catalyst supported on macroreticular resin (2b). The metal nanoclusters can be dispersed only in the swollen fractions of the supports, hence their distribution throughout the polymeric mass can be homogeneous in the gel-type supports, but not in the macroreticular ones (3a,b). In both cases, the metal nanoclusters are entangled into the polymeric framework and their nano-environment is similar in both cases, as shown in level 4.

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