Methacrylate, polymerization, -cyclohexane

Free radical copolymerizations of the alkyl methacrylates were carried out in toluene at 60°C with 0.1 weight percent (based on monomer) AIBN initiator, while the styrenic systems were polymerized in cyclohexane. The solvent choices were primarily based on systems which would be homogeneous but also show low chain transfer constants. Methacrylate polymerizations were carried out at 20 weight percent solids... 

Group transfer polymerization allows the synthesis of block copolymers of different methacrylate or acrylate monomers, such as methyl methacrylate and allyl methacrylate [Hertler, 1996 Webster and Sogah, 1989]. The synthesis of mixed methacrylate-acrylate block copolymers requires that the less reactive monomer (methacrylate) be polymerized first. The silyl dialkylketene acetal propagating center from methacrylate polymerization is more reactive for initiation of acrylate polymerization than the silyl monoalkylketene acetal propagating center from acrylate polymerization is for initiation of methacrylate polymerization. Bifunctional initiators such as l,4-bis(methoxytri methyl si loxymethylene)cyclohexane (XXXIII) are useful for synthesizing ABA block copolymers where the middle block is methacrylate [Steinbrecht and Bandermann, 1989 Yu et al., 1988]. 

Voorn and coworkers demonstrated the inverse Pickering miniemulsion polymerization of aqueous acrylamide and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate in cyclohexane using hydrophobically modified Montmorillonite platelets (cloisite 20A) as solids stabilizer [110]. 

Figure 5. Effect of autoacceleration on the precipitation polymerization of methyl methacrylate (2). The curves, from left to right, are for the diluents cyclohexane t-hutylsterate heptane and bulk.

Solvents 1 and 2 are known to be good solvents for poly(methyl methacrylate) solvent 3 readily dissolves polystyrene.The solubility tests show that the radically polymerized sample is insoluble in all three solvents.The solubility isthusdifferentfrom that of both poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene.The anionically polymerized product dissolves on warming in the acetone/methanol mixture and also in acetonitrile it is insoluble in cyclohexane/toluene.The solubility is thus similar to that of poly(methyl methacrylate). For the cationically initiated polymerization the product is only slightly soluble in acetone/methanol, insoluble in acetonitrile, but very readily soluble in cyclohexane/toluene.The solubility thus resembles that of polystyrene. 

Grafting reactions were also carried out in organic solvents. Fig. 4 shows the polymerization of methyl methacrylate in the fifteen species of organic solvents having various dielectric constants and water systems without cellulose. The numbers in the figure express the dielectric constants of the solvent in the order. As the organic solvent (No. 1-6) with the dielectric constants around 2 was added, the conversion became 0-11% and the value of dioxane (No. 2), which is soluble in water, was the highest. As the solvents with dielectric constants above 8 were used, the conversion increased, except cyclohexane (No. 11). 

Most research into the study of dispersion polymerization involves common vinyl monomers such as styrene, (meth)acrylates, and their copolymers with stabilizers like polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) [33-40], poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) [18,41],poly(methacrylicacid) [42],or hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) [43,44] in polar media (usually alcohols). However, dispersion polymerization is also used widely to prepare functional microspheres in different media [45, 46]. Some recent examples of these preparations include the (co-)polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) [47,48],4-vinylpyridine (4VP) [49], glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) [50-53], acrylamide (AAm) [54, 55], chloro-methylstyrene (CMS) [56, 57], vinylpyrrolidone (VPy) [58], Boc-p-amino-styrene (Boc-AMST) [59],andAT-vinylcarbazole (NVC) [60] (Table 1). Dispersion polymerization is usually carried out in organic liquids such as alcohols and cyclohexane, or mixed solvent-nonsolvents such as 2-butanol-toluene, alcohol-toluene, DMF-toluene, DMF-methanol, and ethanol-DMSO. In addition to conventional PVP, PAA, and PHC as dispersant, poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) [54], partially hydrolyzed poly(vinyl alcohol) (hydrolysis=35%) [61], and poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate-fo-butyl methacrylate)... 

Benzil has frequently been used as a means of generating free radicals in polymerization systems subjected to ultra-violet irradiation 11, 16, 56—58). In studies of the benzil-photoinitiated polymerizations of methyl methacrylate, and vinyl acetate, Melville (16) assumed that initiation was brought about by fragmentation of photoexcited benzil into two benzoyl radicals. However a survey of the photochemistry of benzil 34) indicates that such a cleavage does not in fact take place in solution studies of the products formed on irradiation of benzil in cyclohexane (59), cumene and isopropanol (60) can be rationalised on the basis of initial hydrogen abstraction from solvent by photoexcit i benzil, e.g. 

The synthesis and purification of polystyrene methacryloyl macromonomers (PS-MA) in the molecular weight range Mn= 1000-2000 g mol 1 by living anionic polymerization of styrene (S), termination with ethylene oxide (EO), and subsequent reaction with methacrylic chloride has already been described in detail elsewhere [180] (see also Scheme 16). In this context it has to be emphasized that the hydroxyethyl-terminated PS-MA macromonomer precursor (PS-OH) as obtained after purification of the crude PS-OH by silica column chromatography (cyclohexane/dichloromethane 1/1 v/v) and as charged in the PS-MA synthesis still contains up to about 15 wt-% of non-functionalized polystyrene (PS-H). This PS-H impurity of the PS-MA macromonomer does not interfere with the PS-MA synthesis and the subsequent TBA/PS-MA copolymerization and is easily and conveniently removed from the resulting PTBA-g-PS graft copolymer (see below). 

Macroradicals were obtained by the polymerization of ethyl acrylate in cyclohexane, styrene in hexane, vinyl acetate in decane, and methyl methacrylate in hexane. Because of the solubility of the vinyl acetate block in hexane, the ratio of the weight of vinyl acetate to that of the macroradical in poly (methyl methacrylate-b-vinyl acetate) after heating at 50°C for three days was only 30/100. By contrast, because of the insolubility of the acrylonitrile block in hexane, good yields of methyl methacrylate-b-acrylonitrile macroradicals were obtained. The ratio of the weight of the acrylonitrile block to that of the macroradical was thus 90/100 after heating the mixture for three days at 50°C in hexane. 

After these initial considerations, the complete analysis of a number of diblock copolymers of styrene and methyl methacrylate shall be discussed in detail. The poly(styrene-ftlodc-methyl methacrylate)s under investigation were prepared via anionic polymerization of styrene and subsequent polymerization of methyl methacrylate, varying molar mass and composition (B1-B3). The polystyrene precursors (P1-P3) were isolated and characterized separately. As the PMMA block is the more polar block in the block copolymer, a polar (silica gel) column was chosen for establishing the critical point of PMMA. According to case (1) in Fig. 14, the PS block is then eluted in the SEC mode. The behavior of PMMA of different molar masses on silica gel Si-100 in eluents comprising methylethylketone and cyclohexane is shown in Fig. 15A [37]. 

Yoshikawa, M. and Kitao, T. 1997. Speciality of polymeric membranes-VI. Pervaporation separation of benzene/cyclohexane mixtures through nylon 6-graft-poly(ethyl methacrylate) membranes. 33 25-31. 

The polymerization process of two monomers with different polarities in similar ratios is difficult due to solubility problems. Using the miniemulsion process, it was possible to start from very different spatial monomer distributions, and this resulted in very different amphiphilic copolymers in dispersion [23]. The monomer, which is insoluble in the continuous phase, is miniemulsified in order to form stable and small droplets with a small amount of surfactant The monomer with the opposite hydrophilicity dissolves in the continuous phase (but not in the droplets). The formation of acrylamide/MMA (AAm/MMA) and acrylamide/ styrene (AAm/Sty) copolymers was chosen as examples of the miniemulsion process. In all cases, the syntheses were carried out in water as well as in cyclohexane as the continuous phase. If the synthesis is performed in water, the hydrophobic monomer with a low water solubiHty (styrene or methyl methacrylate)... 

Ethylene polymerized with diethyl peroxydicarbonate contains terminal ester groups (41). Using C-labeled cyclohexane peroxydicarbonate, the fate of the primary radicals during the polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and styrene has been studied (42). Although this reference includes no detailed analysis of the products, it indicates that ROOCO-terminated polystyrene telechelics may be obtained by this technique. A similar method has been used for the preparation of telechelic polybutadiene (43). The carbonate end groups are easily modified into terminal hydroxyl groups by hydrolysis. Hydrogenation of the carbonate functionahzed telechelic polybutadiene, followed by hydrolysis, srields hydroxy-terminated polyethylene telechelics. 

Some specific recent applications of the chromatography-mass spectrometry technique to various types of polymers include the following PE [130, 131], poly(l-octene), poly(l-decene), poly(l-dodecene) and 1-octene-l-decene-l-dodecene terpolymer [132], chlorinated polyethylene [133], polyolefins [134,135], acrylic acid, methacrylic acid copolymers [136, 137], polyacrylate [138], styrene-butadiene and other rubbers [139-141], nitrile rubber [142], natural rubbers [143,144], chlorinated natural rubber [145,146], polychloroprene [147], PVC [148-150], silicones [151,152], polycarbonates (PC) [153], styrene-isoprene copolymers [154], substituted PS [155], polypropylene carbonate [156], ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer [157], Nylon 6,6 [158], polyisopropenyl cyclohexane-a-methylstyrene copolymers [195], cresol-novolac epoxy resins [160], polymeric flame retardants [161], poly(4-N-alkylstyrenes) [162], pol)winyl pyrrolidone [31,163], vinyl pyrrolidone-methacryloxysilicone copolymers [164], polybutylcyanoacrylate [165], polysulfide copolymers [1669], poly(diethyl-2-methacryloxy) ethyl phosphate [167, 168], ethane-carbon monoxide copolymers [169], polyetherimide [170], and bisphenol-A [171]. 

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