Methacrylates, alkyl initiators

The difficulties encountered in the early studies of anionic polymerization of methyl methacrylate arose from the unfortunate choice of experimental conditions the use of hydrocarbon solvents and of lithium alkyl initiators. The latter are strong bases. Even at —60 °C they not only initiate the conventional vinyl poly-addition, but attack also the ester group of the monomer yielding a vinyl ketone1, a very reactive monomer, and alkoxide 23). Such a process is described by the scheme. 

Lithium alkyls initiate polymerization of polar monomers like methyl-methacrylate, vinyl pyridine, acrylo-nitrile, etc. However, these reactions are more complex. The desired addition to the C=C bond is accompanied by other processes, e.g., attack on the -COOEt group with the formation of ketones and lithium methoxide, or in vinyl pyridine polymerization by the metalation of the pyridine moiety. 

Subsequent work by D. Braun and collaborators dealt with the effect of solvent polarity and countercation on the tacticity of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) initiated with various organo alkali metal compounds. By using proton NMR analysis they concluded that polar solvents and alkyl lithium initiators favored syndiotactic configurate on( ) while non-polar solvents favored isotactic piacement( )." ... 

AlkyUithium compounds are primarily used as initiators for polymerizations of styrenes and dienes (52). These initiators are too reactive for alkyl methacrylates and vinylpyridines. / -ButyUithium [109-72-8] is used commercially to initiate anionic homopolymerization and copolymerization of butadiene, isoprene, and styrene with linear and branched stmctures. Because of the high degree of association (hexameric), -butyIUthium-initiated polymerizations are often effected at elevated temperatures (>50° C) to increase the rate of initiation relative to propagation and thus to obtain polymers with narrower molecular weight distributions (53). Hydrocarbon solutions of this initiator are quite stable at room temperature for extended periods of time the rate of decomposition per month is 0.06% at 20°C (39). 

Enolate Initiators. In principle, ester enolate anions should represent the ideal initiators for anionic polymeri2ation of alkyl methacrylates. Although general procedures have been developed for the preparation of a variety of alkaU metal enolate salts, many of these compounds are unstable except at low temperatures (67,102,103). Usehil initiating systems for acrylate polymeri2ation have been prepared from complexes of ester enolates with alkak metal alkoxides (104,105). 

Photopolymerizable compositions based on monomeric acryflc or other ethylenicaHy unsaturated acid derivatives are becoming increasingly popular. When multiftmctional derivatives are employed, three-dimensional networks having high strength and abrasion resistance are possible on exposure to light. A typical composition may contain an ethoxylated trimethylolpropane triacrylate monomer, a perester phenacjhdene initiator (69), and an acryflc acid—alkyl methacrylate copolymer as binder. 

The free radical initiators are more suitable for the monomers having electron-withdrawing substituents directed to the ethylene nucleus. The monomers having electron-supplying groups can be polymerized better with the ionic initiators. The water solubility of the monomer is another important consideration. Highly water-soluble (relatively polar) monomers are not suitable for the emulsion polymerization process since most of the monomer polymerizes within the continuous medium, The detailed emulsion polymerization procedures for various monomers, including styrene [59-64], butadiene [61,63,64], vinyl acetate [62,64], vinyl chloride [62,64,65], alkyl acrylates [61-63,65], alkyl methacrylates [62,64], chloroprene [63], and isoprene [61,63] are available in the literature. 

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... 

The alkyl methacrylate monomers were available from various sources. Isobutyl methacrylate (IBMA) (Rohm and Haas) and t-butyl methacrylate (TBMA) (Rohm Tech) may be purified first by distillation from CaH, followed by distillation from trialkyl aluminum reagents as described in detail earlier (20,21). In particular, t-butyl methacrylate (b.pt. 150°C) was successfully purified by distillation, from triethyl aluminum containing small amounts of diisobutyl aluminum hydride. The trialkyl aluminum and dialkyl aluminum hydride reagents were obtained from the Ethyl Corporation as 25 weight percent solutions in hexane. The initiator, -butyllithium, was obtained from the Lithco Division of FMC, and analyzed by the Gilman "double titration" (22). 

We next investigated the dealkylation of S-b-tBM with TMSI. Unlike the reaction with S-b-MM, it required only 4 hr at room temperature to completely cleave the t-butyl ester. Work-up under acidic conditions gave S-b-MA which was virtually identical by NMR, IR, GPC, and titration with that just described above. Likewise, neutralization with KOH resulted in quantitative conversion to S-b-MA.K. Although the initially formed product of the reaction of alkyl esters with TMSI is presumably the trimethylsilyl ester (1 7 ), we were not able to isolate or characterize this copolymer. It is known that trimethysilyl methacrylate and its polymers spontaneously hydrolyze even in moist air (19). Any traces of water in the methanol used to precipitate the reaction mixture would thus preclude isolation of the intermediate trimethylsislyl ester. 

The monomers commonly used for the preparation of polymer monoliths are either hydrophobic, for example, styrene/divinylbenzene and alkyl methacrylates, or hydrophilic, for example, acrylamides. The polymerization is usually accomplished by radical chain mechanisms with thermal or photochemical initiation, as detailed in the reviews (Eeltink et al., 2004 Svec, 2004a and b). Internal structures of polymer monoliths are described to be corpuscular rather than spongy this means through-pores were found to be interstices of agglomerated globular skeletons as shown in Fig. 7.1 (Ivanov et al., 2003). Porosity is presumably predetermined by the preparation... 

The activity of transition metal allyl compounds for the polymerization of vinyl monomers has been studied by Ballard, Janes, and Medinger (10) and their results are summarized in Table II. Monomers that polymerize readily with anionic initiators, such as sodium or lithium alkyls, polymerize vigorously with allyl compounds typical of these are acrylonitrile, methyl methacrylate, and the diene isoprene. Vinyl acetate, vinyl chloride, ethyl acrylate, and allylic monomers do not respond to these initiators under the conditions given in Table II. 

The highly syndiospecific-living polymerization of methyl methacrylate has been initiated by the neutral bis(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)lanthanide-alkyl or -hydride complexes [215,216]. The plausible reaction mechanism is shown in Scheme XI. 

The organolanthanide initiators allowed stereospecific polymerization of ethyl, isopropyl, and t-butyl methacrylates (Table 3). The rate of polymerization and the syndiotacticity decreased with increasing bulkiness of the alkyl group in... 

Table 3. Organolanthanide-initiated polymerization of alkyl methacrylates...

ARGET ATRP has been successfully applied for polymerization of methyl methacrylate, ft-butyl acrylate and styrene in the presence of Sn(EH)2 (10 mol% vs. alkyl halide initiator or 0.07 mol% vs. monomer) [164,165]. For all monomers, polymerizations were well controlled using between 10 and 50 ppm of copper complexes with highly active TPMA and Me6TREN ligands. ARGET ATRP has also been utilized in the synthesis of block copolymers (poly(n-butyl acrylate)— -polystyrene and polystyrene-Z -poly(n-butyl acrylate) [164,165] and grafting... 

The last decades have witnessed the emergence of new living Vcontrolled polymerizations based on radical chemistry [81, 82]. Two main approaches have been investigated the first involves mediation of the free radical process by stable nitroxyl radicals, such as TEMPO while the second relies upon a Kharash-type reaction mediated by metal complexes such as copper(I) bromide ligated with 2,2 -bipyridine. In the latter case, the polymerization is initiated by alkyl halides or arenesulfonyl halides. Nitroxide-based initiators are efficient for styrene and styrene derivatives, while the metal-mediated polymerization system, the so called ATRP (Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization) seems the most robust since it can be successfully applied to the living Vcontrolled polymerization of styrenes, acrylates, methacrylates, acrylonitrile, and isobutene. Significantly, both TEMPO and metal-mediated polymerization systems allow molec-... 

Another very important visible light-initiated reaction of alkyl aluminum porphyrins is their 1,4-addition to alkyl methacrylates to produce ester enolate species [Eq. (4)]. This enolate then acts as the active species in the subsequent polymerization of the acrylate monomer. For example, Al(TPP)Me acts as a photocatalyst to produce polymethylmethacrylate with a narrow molecular weight distribution in a living polymerization process [Eq. (4)]. Visible light is essential for both the initiation step (addition of methylmethacrylate to Al(TPP)Me) and the propagation... 

---